The Place Inside the Storm

by Bradley W Wright

  Loki pulled out his keyring again, found the right one, and fitted it into the lock. He pushed the door open and stepped to the side, gesturing for us to enter. “Welcome to our nest,” he said.

  “Loki?” a voice called from somewhere inside.

  “It’s me,” he called back. “I’ve brought some guests.”

  Chapter 7

  The Garage

  I stepped inside and crouched, setting Xel down. My arms ached from carrying him. I wasn’t exactly in great shape--especially my arms. Loki gestured for us to move farther inside then closed the door and took a step back, watching us. The light was bright compared to the parking garage. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust. When they did, I saw that we were in a big room with a high ceiling. The walls, floors, and roof were dark concrete. Classical piano music was playing softly from an old fashioned radio. All around the edges of the room were wooden work benches, shelves, and bins. Every surface was piled with small tools, machines, circuit boards, wires.

  I saw metalworking equipment for machining parts, 3-D printers, circuit testers. In one corner was a stack of old laptops and VR gaming systems like people used to have before specs. There were even some robots--mostly disassembled.

  At the bottom of a pile of other junk, I could see something that looked like a cat robot. Maybe one of Xel’s ancestors.

  The place reminded me of an electronics repair and surplus parts shop I used to go to with my father when I was a kid. We would go there on weekends, looking for parts my father needed to fix the machines and systems he programmed. Thinking about my father brought a feeling of hollowness rising in my chest, spreading out. What were my parents doing now? I wondered. Were they asleep? Sitting up? Worried about me? It wasn’t the right time to think about that though. I needed stay focused. I pushed the feeling inside, down, away.

  The back of the room had a loft built across it made out of pallets and four by fours. Sheets of corrugated plastic made a wall across the front of the loft. There were two ladders leading up to doorways covered by curtains. Under the loft, in the back wall was another door that stood open. It looked like a store room. I could see deep metal shelves with metal bins arranged on them.

  “Coming,” called the voice again, and I saw a man walk around the end of one of the shelves. He was short and broad, with bushy white hair, a wrinkled face, and several days’ worth of stubble. His specs looked a lot like the ones the guy at the surplus store had worn--thick and clunky. He shuffled toward us, belting a tattered robe which he wore over pajamas, and stopped next to Loki. “Fell asleep waiting up for you. Well, are you going to introduce me?”

  “Sorry. I don’t know their names. Found them in the intercept. Big rat swarm. They’re new here. Didn’t know where they were.”

  Loki seemed pained, like speaking was difficult for him. I hadn’t really gotten a good look at him until now. He was skinny, about my height, and dressed all in black. His clothes were well worn with many hand sewn patches made out of a variety of fabrics. He reached up nervously and pulled his hood down, revealing short, bristly hair.

  “Thanks for c--chasing those r--rats a--away,” I stammered, looking down at the floor. The old man was wearing Japanese style slippers. Loki wore black boots. “I didn’t get a chance to thank you before. I’m Tara by the way and this is Xel.”

  Xel was sitting at my feet, keeping a close watch on Loki and his friend.

  “I’m Aeon,” the old man said, bending down. He was peering at Xel with obvious curiosity. He shuffled closer and Xel growled. Startled, he took a step back and looked up at me “T-Ninety?” he asked.

  “T-Ninety-One,” Xel replied.

  “Impossible,” the old man said, rocking back on his heels, then inching forward again. “But here you are. May I see your paws?” Xel lifted a paw warily, and Aeon stooped down, feeling it gingerly. “Home version, not military. No claws.”

  “Yes. He’s the consumer version,” I replied. “Listen, I don’t want to seem rude, but what is this place? Where are we? We need to get to downtown--” I broke off and looked up at Loki.

  His face was strained and the tendons in his neck stood out. A strangled, gurgling noise came from his mouth, and his eyes rolled back suddenly, revealing the whites.

  Aeon looked up, following my gaze. “Seizure. Help me lower him.”

  He was at Loki’s side in an instant, lifting his arm and stepping under it to catch his weight. I did the same on the other side and we lowered him to the floor. Loki’s body was rigid and tense and he was shaking.

  “What happened? What should we do?”

  “He needs to ride it out. It will be over in a few minutes.” Aeon crouched down, sat on the floor, and placed a hand on Loki’s forehead.

  I sat down too. “What’s wrong with him? Epilepsy?”

  “No. He was part of an experiment, I think. Something the corp doctors were working on. He has a device in his head. Surgical implant. Something went wrong. They dumped him here along with another child. I saw them, almost two years ago now. I was on gate duty that night. Three big CorpSec goons. They drove up outside, pushed the children out of their vehicle, and took off. I don’t think they realized the garage was inhabited. They thought they were dumping them on an abandoned street to get eaten by dogs. The kids were drugged, half dead. I managed to bring them back here. Tried to take care of them. My neighbor helped. She was a nurse once. Loki survived. His sister didn’t.”

  I gasped, thinking about the conversation I had overheard. “But that’s what they wanted to do to me. The wanted to put something in my head.”

  “So you ran? Is that why you are here?” Aeon was looking up at me, nodding his head.

  I couldn’t read his expression. I looked away, feeling like I had said too much.

  “Tara, be careful. We don’t know if we can trust him,” Xel said, turning his head toward me.

  “Good advice, T-Ninety-One cat Xel,” Aeon said. “I would never return a runaway to those monsters, though. I don’t care how many credits they offered as reward.”

  He looked down at Loki’s face and, as bad as I was at faces, I could tell that what he was feeling was love, anguish, fear, and anger all mixed up.

  It was another minute before Loki’s eyes opened and his body relaxed. “Aeon?” he said, jerking up.

  “Here,” the old man answered.

  “Did I have an episode?”

  He was looking around and his gaze paused on me and Xel then continued roving. A thin trickle of blood flowed from one of his nostrils. Aeon handed him a tissue from his robe pocket, and Loki raised a hand to wipe the blood away.

  “Yes. You should go rest for a little while. It’s late. Can you climb the ladder? I’ll make some breakfast when you wake up.”

  Loki stood carefully and wandered to the back of the room where he climbed slowly up the ladder on the left side and pushed through the curtain.

  “Is he going to be okay?” I asked.

  “He needs to sleep. You too, I bet.” I nodded, rubbing my eyes. “Go through the door at the back there,” he said. “There’s a couch you can sleep on. Pretty comfortable. That’s where I fell asleep waiting up for Loki. Bathroom’s back there too. Your cat Xel can keep an eye on you while we all sleep. More talk in the morning.”

  “Thanks,” I said, forcing myself to look up, meet his eyes.

  He was already walking away though. “Go to sleep. Talk in the morning.” He went to the other ladder and climbed it slowly.

  “Weird place, Xel,” I said, watching the old man disappear behind the curtain to his loft room. “What do you think?”

  “I think you need to sleep, and this place seems reasonably safe. The man and the boy do not strike me as threats. I do not sleep. I will guard you.”

  “Agreed. I’m pretty tired. Let’s go find that couch.”

  ***

  I woke to the sound of clattering pans and something sizzling. A delicious smell was wafting my way from the kitchen. The back room, I had d
iscovered the night before, seemed to be Aeon and Loki’s main living space. There was a makeshift kitchen, a seating area with a couch and a couple of chairs, and a bathroom.

  Nearer the door were the storage shelves I had seen from the main room. Everything was worn. Nothing matched, and most of the stuff looked scavenged, but it was comfortable.

  I rose from the couch and wandered over to the kitchen corner of the room where Aeon was cooking breakfast. Xel padded along behind me.

  “Sorry if I woke you,” he said over his shoulder. “Loki’s still asleep.”

  “It’s okay,” I answered. “What are you cooking?”

  “Eggs with spinach. Farther up, near the surface, a friend of mine keeps chickens. I fixed his specs, and he paid me with a dozen eggs. I grow spinach in the community garden up top. I have some sausage too. Not real. Vat grown. But it tastes fine.”

  “What is this place?” I asked. “It looks like a parking garage. And these rooms where you live? Sorry if I’m nosy.”

  He waved a hand. “Ask questions. I don’t mind. This is a refugee camp. At least that’s how it started. It started with the drought during the teens, then the floods and plagues in the twenties, followed by massive depopulation and migration away from the suburbs when the government stopped maintaining the infrastructure. People came to the city, but there wasn’t enough space. A lot of the big apartment buildings and shelters were quarantined. The government put us here. We’ve been here ever since. There are plenty of other communities like this around the city. This part of the garage used to be the maintenance shop. I took it over when I first came here. Now I fix people’s electronics for them. Loki helps.”

  “But the others,” I asked, confused. “The others who live down here. What do they do? How many people are there here?”

  “You must be from a corp. Your parents engineers or something?”

  “Yes. Programmers. Xia Yu.”

  “They don’t teach you about places like this in the corp schools. Most of the grunts who do low-level jobs live like this. In permanent refugee camps, or old apartment buildings, or abandoned shopping malls. Only mid-levels and up get corp apartments.”

  “I didn’t know. I never thought about it,” I said. “It was different in PacNW. My family just moved here a few months ago. Everybody is poor there, but they all have a place to live--a house or an apartment.”

  “I’ve heard about it. Never been there,” he said, sliding a plate of scrambled eggs and a fork onto the counter in front of me. “Eat while it’s hot. Ever had real eggs?”

  “No. I don’t think so.” I sat down on a stool, shoveled a bite onto my fork, and put it in my mouth. The flavor was amazing. The difference between instafood and real eggs was beyond comparison. It was sort of like only ever having seen flowers in VR or holos and then seeing one in real life. I finished it all before Aeon even had a chance to drop a couple of sausages onto the plate.

  “I wish Loki ate like you do. His appetite is not great. He’s too skinny. My turn to ask a question if you don’t mind.”

  “Go ahead,” I answered between mouthfuls of sausage.

  “You said you ran away because Xia Yu wanted to put a device in your head?” I nodded. “Did they say why?” he asked. “Were you parents going to let them do it?”

  “Yes. They were putting pressure on my parents because I hacked Xel. They said it was dangerous, the changes I made to his firmware.” Aeon put a cup of tea down in front of me, and I stared at it while I spoke. “They said they wanted to fix me. That the implant would make me more social. I’ve always been kind of a loaner. I don’t get along with other people very well.”

  “Just as I suspected,” Aeon said. “I believe that Loki’s implant is intended to improve his social communication. You saw last night what happened. His seizures are most likely to occur when he is in a group of people and expected to communicate with them. Although they can happen at other times too. Whenever he is under high stress. They have been happening randomly lately. The implant doesn’t work correctly. It overloads his brain, and he has a seizure. It’s progressing. His seizures come more often and last longer.”

  “Can you take it out?”

  “No. It would take a very skilled surgeon to do that. Even then, I don’t know if he would recover. All the surgeons work for the corps. I couldn’t take him to them, even if I had the credits. They would know that he was a failed experiment, one who was meant to die.”

  “My grandmother is a doctor. That’s where we’re going--”

  “Tara!” Xel’s voice stopped me. I had forgotten that he was there, listening. I paused for a moment. “It’s okay, Xel. I have a feeling about Aeon and Loki. I think we can trust them.” I turned back to Aeon. “We want to get back to PacNW. That’s where my grandmother lives. In the area that used to be Oregon. She’s not a surgeon but she might be able to help find somebody. She knows lots of other doctors. The people at Xia Yu tried to tell my parents that the doctors in PacNW were bad, but I don’t think it’s true. They don’t have as much fancy equipment, but they are well trained.”

  Aeon nodded, thinking. He was also looking at his tea. I appreciated that he didn’t try to make eye contact with me. He seemed to understand. He picked up his cup and sipped it, holding it in two hands just under his chin so that the steam rose in little tendrils that curled around his face.

  “You’ll need more gear if you’re going to make it to old Oregon.”

  It was Loki’s voice. I turned and saw him standing at the edge of the kitchen, gaunt and squinting as if he had just woken.

  “You both will,” Aeon said.

  Loki’s face was blank. He stared at Aeon. “What do you mean?”

  “You have to go with her. This is the best hope we’ve had. Her grandmother can help you.”

  Chapter 8

  The Market

  “I can’t,” Loki said, his voice rising. “I couldn’t leave you.”

  “Sit down for a minute, and we’ll talk it out,” Aeon replied, motioning to an empty stool. Loki sat and Aeon put a plate of eggs and sausage in front of him. “I know this is sudden but as soon as Tara offered, I knew it was the right choice. You know how I’ve been hoping for an opportunity like this. I don’t BS you, Loki. I took you in. I took your sister in too. She didn’t make it. We buried her in the sewers. But you have to survive. You’re all I have. It’s getting worse. We can’t stick our heads in the sand. We have to face the facts. You need help. Maybe Tara’s grandmother can help you.”

  “But this is my home,” Loki said. He seemed on the verge of tears.

  “I know,” Aeon said, his expression grave. “I’ve tried to provide a home for you. Come back to it. You can come back healed.”

  “You could come with.”

  “No.” Aeon turned back toward the stove and cracked an egg into the pan. “I’m too old. I would only slow you down. It takes me an hour just to get up to the upper levels with my knees the way they are. You’ll have a hard enough time as it is. If you don’t get caught, it will be a miracle.”

  “But you need my help here.” A tear slid down Loki’s cheek.

  I turned away, studying my hands.

  “I’ll manage, Loki,” Aeon turned back to him. “Like I did before you came to live here. Do you think I want you to leave? I wish I could keep you here with me forever. You’re like my child. I know I’m not much. I’m just an old man who fixes broken things. I live in a concrete box underground. But I’ve tried to protect you. I’ve tried to keep you safe and teach you what I can. I don’t want you to leave. But you need to take this chance. If someone can fix what those doctors did to you, you have to take the chance.”

  Loki sat, staring at his untouched food.

  Aeon turned, stood looking at him for a moment, then closed the distance between them with two steps and placed his hand on Loki’s shoulder. “Think about it,” he said. “Go for a walk and think about it. Take your time but come back with your decision. Eat those eggs first, thoug
h, no sense wasting food.”

  Loki took a bite, chewing slowly, the muscles in his jaw standing out. He looked up at Aeon who was now cooking eggs for himself, back turned. “Father,” Loki said. Aeon’s back stiffened. “You’re right. They’re getting worse, my attacks. I’ll go, try to get help.” Loki hung his head.

  Aeon turned and walked to him, placed a hand on his shoulder again. They remained frozen in that position, silent, for a long time.

  ***

  Loki and I walked side by side. We were climbing the ramps, circling around and around, heading to the ground level where we could exit. Loki was silent, brooding. I had left Xel behind with Aeon. Xel complained about it, but it wasn’t safe to travel in the open with him. He was too valuable and also people would be on the lookout for a girl matching my description with a cat. Aeon had checked the news feeds and there was a reward offered for information about me. I kept my hood up and my hair tucked away. Aeon had given me sunglasses to put on when we got to the surface. I was going to wear my respie but Aeon said people didn’t have them where we were going--it would be another clue that I didn’t belong.

  Normally, I was fine with silence. I didn’t understand why people felt like they always needed to be chattering at each other. I felt nervous, though. It was weird to walk along next to a complete stranger without saying anything. I wasn’t really used to being alone with a boy my age either.