The Place Inside the Storm

by Bradley W Wright

  Oak told me the history. For a while things got better. They were able to get help for their son. Accommodations were made. The children at his school were educated to understand why he and other kids like him were different. They were taught to accept difference. But then the country took a turn. New people came to power who did not believe in education and accommodation and diversity. They took away the funding. They put bureaucrats in charge. They turned power over to the corporations, and corporations didn’t like difference. They wanted to stamp it out. Good workers and good consumers were predictable. Corporations put a lot of emphasis on culture. Everybody had to fit into the corporate culture, had to be a team player. When Oak and Yarrow saw how things were going, they decided to move away, into the country. They bought land in the mountains. They invited a few others to come with them and they set up their own community. It took years but they turned the old, decommissioned military base into a home. Now their community had over fifty people. It was like Loki and Aeon’s garage but in the mountains. They grew and gathered their own food, made their own clothes, kept the old base maintained and upgraded it when necessary.

  “Now, though, we come to the troubling part, Tara,” Yarrow said, taking over. “Our son was very good with technology. He loved computers and electronics. He wasn’t happy with the life we live here. He wanted to go out into the world and see what it was like in other places. He went to work for one of the corporations. I bet you can guess which one.”

  “Xia Yu,” I said.

  “Yes,” she continued. “He has been there for several years. It’s a struggle. He has to hide his difference. I think you know how exhausting that is. We call it masking.”

  I nodded.

  “The last straw though, was when he found out about a secret program Xia Yu had developed,” she continued. “The brain implants. Meant to cure people whose brains didn’t work the way Xia Yu wanted them to.”

  “Loki,” I said.

  “Yes. In the beginning, they kidnapped children. Homeless children who would only be missed by their parents who were powerless, who no one would listen to. They perfected the device. It’s very effective now and safe in most cases. However, as you suspected, it changes the children. It makes them docile. It makes them easy to control. We believe it’s wrong. People like me, like my son, like Meadow who you met earlier, like you, maybe--we’re not broken. We don’t need fixing. We need acceptance. Some things are harder for us but some things are easier. We tend to have very good memories. We tend to be detail oriented and good at thinking about systems. Sometimes we see things from a different perspective. We can have insights other people miss.”

  “But how did you know about me? About my situation?”

  “Our son is still there, Tara,” Oak said. “When he found out what they were doing, he decided to stay. He has gained access to the medical records. He knows what they’1re planning and who their targets are. He has to be very careful. He warns kids by sending anonymous messages. He directs them to us. He hates it there, but he stays so that he can help. If they found out what he’s doing, it could be very serious.”

  “So it’s your son who helped me escape,” I said, “who sent me the messages.”

  “Yes.”

  “But what about Loki? Can you help him?”

  Oak and Yarrow were silent. Then Alphar spoke. “None of us are doctors, Tara. Sky is a nurse. We would need a very skilled surgeon to remove the device. Even then, we don’t know if it would help him or kill him. Did you see the other occupant of our infirmary? Her name is Keira. Joseph brought her to us almost a year ago. She’s another victim of the Xia Yu doctors. The implant in her brain is similar to Loki’s. We have been keeping her in a medically induced coma almost since she arrived.” I looked down at my hands. Tears filled my eyes. I seemed to be crying at every turn.

  “But we have an idea, Tara,” Oak said.

  I looked up. “What? What idea?”

  “We will need your help. It could be dangerous.”

  “I’ll do it,” I said. “I don’t care what it is. I want to do it.”

  Chapter 16

  The Plan

  I sat in the room Yarrow had assigned to me, on the bed, back against the cool wall. Xel sat next to me. We had been sitting there silently for a while, thinking. One of the things I liked best about Xel was that he never felt the need to make idle conversation. Finally, I felt like I was ready to talk it out. “Explain it to me again please, Xel.”

  “Tara, I don’t like this plan. I don’t think we should bother considering it. It’s too dangerous.”

  “I know how you feel, Xel, but I have to decide for myself.”

  He sat for a moment then began going over the details again. “The basic goal is to get the firmware source code for the implant device. If we have the source code, we can rewrite it. We can make the device stop interfering with Loki’s brain. Keira’s too. Oak and Yarrow’s son Joseph does not have a high enough clearance at Xia Yu to access the source code. He has managed to access the patient records for the project without being detected, but he has not been able to hack into the systems holding the source code. Your father is a higher-level employee and does have access to those systems. The plan, which I feel is too risky, is for you to travel back to Los Angeles, go to your family’s apartment at night, and use your father’s specs to download the source code. Joseph works in the operations control department. He has access to the system that controls the apartment blocks and is able to see that they have not disabled your biometric profile yet. You will be able to enter the building by facial recognition at the door. He will take the house computer offline so that it will not be able to alert your family or the authorities of your presence. Theoretically, you will be able to walk right in. However, that does not mean you will be able to successfully use your father’s specs. They are locked to his biometrics. You would need him to unlock them with an eye scan or his fingerprint.”

  “His specs are trained to my fingerprint. At least, I think they are. We were playing around one night, and he set me up. My sister too. He might have erased it, though. Even if he did, he’s a really sound sleeper. You know he usually falls asleep in the chair in his office. He stays up half the night working. I can just hold the contact on his finger to unlock them.”

  “Too risky, Tara. So many things could go wrong.”

  “How would I get to LA?”

  “You would be taken to the border by floater. From there, someone, a friend of Joseph’s, would pick you up and you would go by car.”

  I was silent for another minute, thinking about it. “I’m not going to lie,” I said finally. “The idea of going back there is really scary. We just made it here. I can’t let them just keep Loki in a coma forever, though. Like that girl Keira. What kind of life is that? I need to think about this. I’m going to go help Meadow with the goats. I told her I’d come back. I need time to think.”

  I found a red-cheeked Meadow still out in the goat pen. She was working with a large, capable-looking woman in overalls who appeared to be trimming a goat’s hooves.

  Meadow stood in front of the goat and distracted it by waving her arms and chattering while the woman stood behind and carefully trimmed the back left hoof with a pair of shears. I waited patiently while they worked, watching. When they were done, the woman let go of the goat’s leg, and it dashed off at once, jumping and bleating.

  Meadow saw me and walked over. “That’s Hugin. He’s a pygora. That’s a cross between a pygmy and an angora. We raise them for the hair. We shear them twice a year, and then Sabrina uses the hair to make yarn for sweaters, scarves, and mittens.”

  “Who’s Sabrina?” I asked.

  “Oh, she’s the seamstress. She makes all the clothes we wear here. She made your clothes.” Meadow gestured at the clothes Yarrow had picked out for me. “A lot of people here have issues with commercial clothes because they have scratchy tags and fabrics, or they don’t fit right. So Sabrina makes clothes for us. You can hav
e your own clothes too if you want. There’s no rule about not wearing stuff from outside. Most people wear hers, though, because they’re so comfortable and nice looking.” The woman who had been trimming the goat’s hooves waved to Meadow. “Oh! Sorry. This is Talya. She is in charge of the goats. I’m learning from her.”

  “Nice to meet you. I’m Tara,” I said.

  Talya hung back, looking at the ground off to my right, nodding and smiling.

  “Talya doesn’t talk,” Meadow said. “She can communicate with a tablet though. Or with specs. We don’t use specs here very much though.”

  Talya waved again and wandered off toward a shed across the pen. I looked around. We were in a clearing in a wooded valley. It was cold out but not raining for once. A hundred yards away was a doorway leading back into the mountain and the warren of tunnels and rooms that made up the commune.

  “Do you have time to talk?” I asked. “I don’t want to keep you from work you’re supposed to be doing.”

  “No, it’s fine. Oak and Yarrow told me I should help you out and show you around if you came by. Do you want to go for a walk? Just up the hill there’s a nice view.”

  “Okay,” I answered.

  I wasn’t sure I really did want to go for a walk. I’d had enough of walking for a while, but once we hopped over the fence and started up the hill, it felt good to be moving. There was a narrow path through the trees, and we walked slowly. Meadow led the way.

  “How long have you lived here?” I asked.

  “Two years,” she answered. “I used to have trouble in school. Other kids picked on me. My parents knew someone who had heard about the commune from another friend. It’s all word of mouth. They don’t advertise that they’re out here. Anyway, we came here and checked it out. I liked it right away. My dad did too. My mom wasn’t sure, but we convinced her.”

  “Does everybody have a job here?” I asked.

  We had reached the crest of the hill and both sat down on a log at the top, looking out over wooded hillsides and mountains towering in the distance.

  “Yeah, everybody helps do the work. Stuff like cleaning and washing dishes and laundry or whatever is all scheduled, and we all help. Most people have a specialty, though. Like Talya. She’s the goat keeper. Sabrina makes clothes. My dad is a mechanic so he helps with all the machinery and plumbing and electrical stuff. My mom teaches in the preschool.”

  “There’s a school here?”

  “Yeah. There are seventeen other kids. All ages. We just have two rooms for classrooms. It’s pretty weird. I mean, we used to live in a house, like normal. I went to school, and my parents had normal jobs where they got paid by the cluster government. Then we moved here. Oak says people used to live in communes a lot back in the nineteen sixties and seventies. Then it went out of style, I guess.”

  “Yeah, I heard that too. My friend Loki lives in a kind of commune I guess. So it’s not that weird. Wait, if there’s a school here, why aren’t you there?”

  “I am. Well, not right this minute. We’re going for a walk.” She grinned. “But learning about the goats from Talya is part of school. We all get to pick stuff we like and learn more about it. I spend one day a week working with Talya so I can learn how to take care of the goats.”

  “Cool. I mean, sounds like something I would like. I don’t like school very much.”

  “I didn’t either, until I came here. You could go to our school. I mean, if you’re going to stay here at the commune. Sorry, I’m not supposed to ask you any questions about your parents or anything like that.”

  “I know. Sorry. I’m not supposed to talk about my situation right now. I can tell you later, maybe. I want to see your school, though. Will you show me?”

  “Yeah, we should go get lunch now, though. It must be almost time. After lunch, I can show you around the whole place.”

  We walked back down the hill, through the goat enclosure where Meadow introduced me to her favorite goat, Jonquil, and then on into the commune. There were people in the hallways and corridors, all heading the same direction as us more or less.

  We all congregated in the dining hall where they were serving lunch.

  “Oh, good, Paul’s cooking today,” Meadow said when she saw him in the kitchen. “I always get a stomach ache when Sergio cooks. Paul cooks most of the time. Sergio only cooks when Paul is taking a day off.”

  The meal was thick vegetable soup with more fresh bread. We got our trays and found a place at one of the crowded tables.

  “What do people do if they don’t like the food? Like, if I hated vegetable soup?”

  “Oh, everybody can make their own food if they want. Judith over there--” Meadow motioned with her head without looking, “--she eats the same thing every day. Peanut butter and jam sandwiches. She just doesn’t like anything else. She has to take vitamin supplements.”

  “Where does the peanut butter come from? Do people have to go out and shop? How do you buy stuff?”

  “We make some products here that we sell. We make beer and honey. We have bees. I’ll show you the hives. We also do software development. There are a few people who are good at programming, and they live here and work for clients on the outside. Alphar does that.”

  I nodded, thinking about the commune. It was a weird place but it seemed like it worked. And they had saved me. “Who’s in charge? I mean, who makes decisions about stuff?”

  “All the adults get together and talk when they have to make a decision. Oak and Yarrow started the commune so people respect them and listen to them, but everybody gets to vote in the end. It’s a democracy like the United States used to be before the reorg.”

  I looked around at all the people in the room. “Is everybody...like you and me?”

  “Neurodiverse? No. Some people are neurotypical and just came here because of their kids. Like my parents. Oak and Yarrow started the commune for their son. So they could get him away from a bad environment. It’s a good place for everybody, though. I think it helps everybody to be in a place where we focus on meeting people’s needs. We were talking in school yesterday about equity. That means giving everybody what they need to be successful.” Meadow’s voice got a little shaky, and she rocked in her seat and nodded her head as she talked. “Before we came here, it was bad for me. In school, they treated me like I was stupid or I was acting out intentionally. Other kids were mean to me. Now, I like school. I’m still not very good at making friends, though.”

  “I’m bad at making friends too,” I said. “I only have one friend. Other than Xel and Loki, but they’re more like brothers or something. I’ll probably never get to see my one friend again.”

  “Maybe we can be friends,” Meadow said, still rocking, looking at her hands in her lap.

  “Yeah, I think we should be,” I answered. “We definitely should be.”

  After lunch, we walked around the commune. Meadow showed me the beehives which looked like white wooden crates stacked on top of each other. They were in a clearing near the goat enclosure. Next, we walked back through the commune and she showed me the laundry facility, the brewery where they made the beer they sold, the maintenance room where we found her father disassembling and cleaning a motor, the fusion plant where the electricity for the commune was generated, and finally, the school. The school rooms were right next to each other and they had sharply sloped ceilings--high at the side where we entered and lower at the far end. Like most of the rooms in the commune, they didn’t have windows since they were underground. The students were still having lunch and were all gathered in one of the rooms. We looked into the empty room next door. A beautiful glow seemed to be coming right through the ceiling and illuminating the room. Meadow explained that we were at the edge of the mountain and that the ceilings were made from translucent concrete with optical fibers that allowed the sunlight to pass through. On the outside it was textured to look like rock. Oak and Yarrow tried to disguise the commune from the outside as much as possible to make it look like just a sm
all family homestead. They didn’t want a lot of windows that would show the extent of the tunnels and rooms under the mountain. The translucent concrete was something new they were trying out. It was an idea brought to them by a family who joined the community a few years before.

  The warm glow from the ceiling illuminated a large classroom without desks or any obvious focal point. The room had nice wooden shelves and cubbies, a few tables with chairs against the walls, and lots of pillows and carpets on the floor for lounging. There was no clutter, no posters covering the walls, everything was neatly organized and put away. I noticed a sort of hammock suspended from the ceiling by ropes and pointed to it questioningly.

  “Some kids like to swing. The feeling of movement helps them,” Meadow answered. “There’s a quiet room over there too,” she said, pointing to an open door that led into a small room with a comfortable chair. “Kids can go in there when they are feeling overwhelmed.”

  We spent some more time looking over the room. Soon after we arrived, the younger students began to drift back in through an adjoining door. Meadow’s mom came in with them.

  “They’re doing computer science next door. Alphar’s teaching today. You might enjoy seeing it,” she said.

  We went and stood in the doorway. There were about seven kids in the older class, all younger than me. Meadow was the oldest of the school-aged kids at the commune. The students were wearing specs and sitting in a circle on the floor. One of the students, a skinny boy with dark hair, was speaking.