by J J Hane
Angry tears had started to form in her eyes, though she stopped them from flowing by sheer force of will. I wondered then, not for the first time, what it must be like for the actual people, the individual human beings, who lived outside the Martyrion. Obviously, I had thought about it before, but never in the context of a real, live outlander.
I had no idea how to respond to her.
“Yeah,” she said. “I thought so.”
Serenity turned to go.
“Wait,” I said, stepping forward to gently block her path. “Where are you going to go?”
“Out of here. Away from this place before it stains me any more than it already has.”
Unsure what that last sentence meant, I responded to the first. “You won’t get out the way you’re going. You’re heading toward the city center. That big tower there is the exact center. You need to head back the way we came if you want to get out.”
Her expression became unreadable.
“I can show you the way out,” I volunteered. Only after the words left my mouth did I stop to consider how much trouble that could get me in. “I mean, if you want me to…”
Serenity tilted her head slightly. “Why?”
That was a very good question. “Because I want to help, I guess.” I didn’t add what I was thinking: And also, I’m an idiot.
She quirked an eyebrow at that. Turning away from me, she began walking back toward the medical center and, presumably, the western wall, invisible from where we stood.
“I do,” I insisted, following. “I know you probably haven’t met anyone from the city before, but we aren’t evil scientists bent on world domination.”
“Sure,” was all she said.
“Look, I know the tribes and the city don’t get along most of the time, but I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Why not?” she asked. There was less heat in her tone this time. “You don’t know me. Why would you care?”
I sighed. “I care because you are a person who needs help. The entire Martyrion was built on that idea. Isn’t that enough?”
Of course, that sounded ridiculous, even to me. That wasn’t enough. So why was I offering to help her?
Sure, I wanted to help keep her from getting hurt, and to keep her from hurting others. When I really thought about it, though, I realized that there was one big reason. I had been born in the tribes, though I’d never met anyone else from there until that day. If I let Serenity walk away, she would disappear forever, and I would probably never get another chance to meet an outlander. I would never get to know what the world beyond our walls was really like.
“Not in my experience,” she said after a beat. I had to pull my mind back on track.
“Okay, well, the doctors treated you. They helped you.”
Serenity ground her teeth. She spoke quietly. “I’m not sure they did.”
“What do you mean?”
No response.
“Fine. What would it take to convince you that we aren’t evil?”
Her laugh was harsh this time, bitter. “You can’t. If you want to prove that you, personally, aren’t evil, you can do more than just show me how to get back out. You can get me some of those meds for treating radiation poisoning. I know the medical center has plenty. Kids in my tribe are dying without those little pills you take for granted.”
I thought about that for the space of a city block. She was correct that we took the pills for granted. Everyone got one whenever they needed it, always before health issues could start becoming a problem. It was a regular part of life, like eating or showering. We took the pills to keep the radiation from damaging our DNA. While the radiation wasn’t all that bad compared with some areas of the world, it could still cause all kinds of problems. The thought of little kids getting sick from something they couldn’t see or defend themselves against made me a little nauseated.
“Okay,” I said, slowly, uncertain that I wanted to commit to this. “I think I can get you some of the pills.”
Serenity stopped in her tracks, regarding me with skepticism. “Really?”
Chapter 4
“Yeah. Maybe. I think I know where they keep some of them. It shouldn’t be that hard to get them.”
I walked past her, steeling myself against anxiety building in my chest. Breaking the rules really wasn’t my style. Not that I had ‘style,’ of course. Yet I was about to steal medicine and help an outlander escape the city. No time for half-measures in life, I suppose.
We walked back to the medical center at a quick pace. Serenity easily kept up with me, despite my slightly longer legs. The chill morning air felt good on my head, which was throbbing fiercely. Maybe I would have to find some pain killers while I was at it.
When we reached our destination, Serenity climbed gracefully through the narrow window. By the time I had awkwardly scrambled through it myself, she had already slipped back into the bed, tossing the thin hospital gown over her clothes. I bit my lip, thinking hard about what to do next. Serenity had her own plan already formed.
“Go get the pills,” she told me, carefully repositioning her blanket to look like she was asleep. “We can meet outside when you’re ready. I’ll wait here and pretend everything is fine. How long do you need?”
I considered that for a moment. “Maybe fifteen minutes?”
“Fine. I’ll meet you out by the front entrance in fifteen minutes.”
I nodded. After a brief hesitation, I straightened my clothes, wiped my face on my sleeve, and strode purposefully out of the room. The guard glanced up at me.
“How’d it go?” she drawled.
“Um. Fine.” Very smooth. I’m basically a super spy.
Cringing at myself, I hurried off, not wanting to give the guard a chance to ask anything else or, more importantly, to notice the bruise that was undoubtedly growing on my face. There was no way to hide the mountain rising from the back of my skull where I’d hit the wall, but I had hope that it didn’t look as big as it felt.
Everyone in the Martyrion receives daily doses of the radiation pills. Most of the time we get them with our morning meals, the way people used to take vitamins. They were designed to control the negative effects of the elevated radiation around the world, while also acting to block many of the diseases that were still prevalent in the area.
I had only seen the storage room for the pills once. It was an unlocked closet on the first floor of the med facility. Since the pills had no side effects and were freely offered, there was no reason to secure them. Pain killers were kept somewhere below the first floor, but the innocuous radiation pills were easy to get to.
Ab and I had found the storage room when we were kids. He had broken his arm while trying to climb up the side of his housing unit. I got sent with him to the med facility because we had been playing together. I think I was supposed to learn a valuable lesson about…. Something. I’m not sure. Regardless, the moment Ab and I were alone, we escaped into the hallways to explore.
We got stuck washing dishes in both of our housing units for two weeks.
Fortunately, that bit of unsupervised exploration in a facility filled with highly sensitive instruments was finally about to pay off. If it hadn’t been for the staff yelling at us in the very hallway where they stored the pills, I might never have remembered where they were kept.
I forced myself to keep my head up, my eyes forward. Imitating the confident strides of the handful of staff that I passed in the halls, I somehow managed to get to my destination without anyone questioning my presence.
By the time I reached the storage room, my heartbeat had started to return to normal. With a quick glance in either direction down the sterile, softly lit hall, I leaned casually against the plain door marked with symbols I did not quite understand. Gathering my courage, I reached behind my back, twisted the handle, and backed quickly into the room.
It was not very big, only about nine feet square, but it was filled from floor to ceiling with little boxes containing life-savin
g medicine. It occurred to me that there must be other storage areas much larger than this one to provide the medication for all the citizens of the Martyrion. I grabbed a pair of the boxes, containing enough pills for maybe two hundred doses.
It was then that I realized that I had no way to conceal the boxes. As I thought about that, I also realized that the longer I stood there, the more likely it was that someone would walk into the closet. Hurriedly, I set the boxes back down, peeling open the flimsy lids. Inside were little bottles about the length of my hand, each filled with the green and white pills. I snatched up the bottles, shoving them into my pockets until they threatened to overflow. I would not be able to carry as many that way, but I figured it would be better to have fewer and not get caught than to get a bunch of them and be stopped during our exit.
I shoved the empty and half-empty boxes to the back of the bottom shelf where they would, hopefully, not be seen for some time. Taking a deep breath, I cracked the closet door, peeking out into the hallway. A janitor had just passed, his back to me as he wheeled a cart down the hall. If I had opened the door a moment sooner, he would have seen me.
Not wanting to wait around any longer, I slipped out of the storage room, silently shutting the door. I hurried off the opposite direction the janitor was going, trying desperately to steady my breathing. My pockets bulged conspicuously.
To my tremendous surprise, not to mention relief, I made it out through one of the rear entrances of the facility where there were fewer staff and no patients. It took real effort to keep my pace at a quick walk, rather than sprinting around the building like my life depended on it.
I kept my distance from the doors when I reached the front entrance. Even though I knew that no one had any reason to suspect that I might be up to no good, I didn’t want to risk looking guilty. Hovering near the doors might attract attention. Of course, actively trying to look like I was not hovering near the doors looked just about as guilty.
I had started to worry that Serenity had been caught trying to sneak out when a hiss from the mouth of an alley a few meters away drew my attention. I blew out a relieved sigh as I saw Serenity standing in the shadows, gesturing for me to join her. I practically jogged to her, receiving a scowl and silencing motion from her in exchange for my enthusiasm.
“Did you get them?” she asked, eyeing my bulging pockets.
“Yeah. Not as many as I wanted to, but I got some, at least.”
She chewed her lip, thinking it over. “It’s better than nothing,” she said after a moment. “We need to go before they realize I’m gone.”
We spent the next half an hour sneaking through back alleys and side streets as I led her to the wall. While the city’s security forces maintained a constant watch for any threat that might approach from outside, surveillance within the walls was minimal. I kept us away from the busier streets where we would be most likely to be seen; Serenity did not exactly blend in with her sturdy tribal clothes.
Before we reached the wall, I was careful to lead her in a wide circle around the security checkpoint where we had all been taken the previous night. Just down the wall from there was the large gate that allowed the agriculture workers to come and go as we needed. A handful of hoversleds were parked at their charging stations, while a pair of mechanics looked them over. Through the open gate I could see a few people scattered throughout the fields in the distance, harvesting and treating the soil.
“What now?” Serenity asked, impatient. I was peeking carefully around the corner of a crop storage container twice the size of my residential unit. The young woman pulled me out of the way so she could get a good look, herself.
“Hey!” I grumbled, swatting her hand away. She ignored me.
“How are we going to get out without being seen?” she asked, her tone thoughtful. I could see her jaw clenching and unclenching as she considered the problem.
“I have an idea,” I told her. “But you might not like it.”
She gave me a skeptical look.
“Come on,” I whispered, leading her back the way we came.
There was a narrow, locked door on the back of the storehouse. I pressed my thumb against the little pad next to the door, the lock clicked, and we slipped inside. The storehouse was divided into four huge rooms, each filled with giant containers of harvested crops awaiting processing. I led Serenity quickly through the first two rooms, which held our modified corn and soybeans. The third room was mostly empty, awaiting the produce of the rest of the western fields. It had what I was looking for, however.
Sitting next to one of the empty, bus-sized containers was a stack of large crates. Any one of them would be too big to carry, so there were two small devices waiting beside them. They were essentially miniature versions of the hoversleds used for agricultural transport. I popped open one of the crates, stood beside it, and gestured grandly.
“Your chariot awaits, madam,” I said in my best imitation of the film records I had seen. Serenity stared blankly at me for a moment before I realized that she probably did not have access to any of the forms of entertainment that had been popular before the Fall and, therefore, had no idea what a chariot was. After a second or two, though, she understood my meaning.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “There’s no way I’m letting you put me in a box.”
“Do you want to get out without being seen or not?” I asked. I recognized that there was a little bit of a whine in my voice, but I was getting tired of her stubbornness. Also, my head still hurt.
“There’s a better way,” she insisted, looking around.
“Oh, really?” I asked with mock enthusiasm. “Do please share how your abundant knowledge of the city is going to help you escape within the next few minutes any other way.”
Serenity scowled.
“No?” I asked. “Then get in the box.”
She took two quick steps forward, glaring up into my eyes with a fiery intensity that left my face feeling sunburned. “If you talk to me like that again, Raphael,” she said slowly, quietly, “I don’t care how helpful you think you’re being: I’ll rip your tongue right out.”
I believed her. “Okay, okay,” I said, raising my hands in surrender. “I’m sorry, but I’m also serious. There is no other way. They’ll lock down the city soon, once they realize you’re not in the medical center.”
Maybe that was true. It sounded true to me and, evidently, to her as well. She ground her teeth, shot one more glare up at me, and climbed into the box.
“I’ll be quick,” I promised her as I shut the lid, careful not to fully latch it. There wouldn’t be much air in the crate.
Once Serenity was tucked away, I hurriedly connected the microsled, lifting the crate a few inches off the ground. That done, I pushed it through the rest of the storehouse, out into the overcast morning.
The pair of mechanics we’d seen earlier had their concentration fixed on one of the hoversleds. I passed them with a nod, loading the crate onto a different sled. I froze when one of the mechanics, an older man named Joe, called my name.
“Hey, Raphael,” he said, coming over to me.
I turned to face him, trying to keep myself between him and the slightly open crate. I did my best to sound nonchalant. “Hey, Joe. How’s it going?”
“Fine, fine,” he replied, casually. “Didn’t expect to see you here. Aren’t you still working section forty-one?”
“Uh, yeah. Ms. Baumgardner asked me to run this crate out first, though.”
“Why’s that?”
“Um. The other one was broken?”
“What other one?”
Joe wasn’t being suspicious: he was just a genuinely friendly guy. Very frustrating.
“I’m not really sure,” I said, desperate now to end the conversation. “Honestly, I wasn’t paying attention to anything she said.”
Joe laughed at that. “Well, don’t tell her that.”
“I won’t,” I said, plastering a fake grin on my face, thankful for once th
at adults always expect the worst from teens. “I should get going, though.”
I turned away from him, pushing the crate onto the back of the hoversled before hopping up to the controls at the front.
“Hang on there, kid,” Joe said, stepping up onto the back of the hoversled. I froze, my palms suddenly sweaty. He reached over to the lid of the crate, wedging his fingers under it. I held my breath.
Joe shifted the lid, clicking it into place. “Could’ve lost the top, there,” he said, hopping back down. “Be careful out there.”
“Will do,” I answered cheerily. It was hard to keep my voice steady as my knees shook.
Flipping a couple of switches, I powered up the hoversled, guiding it quickly out through the open gate. Once out of the city, I picked up the pace, zipping across the acres of fields. Sunlight was beginning to seep through the clouds behind us, intermittently casting our shadow out ahead of us.
I waited to stop the vehicle until we had reached the furthest edge of the patchwork fields, on the border of the blasted land that separated the territory of the Martyrion from the rest of the world. Once we were done moving, I rushed to open the crate. The moment the latches released, Serenity kicked the lid off from inside, sending it tumbling to the ground, missing me by inches.
“Having fun yet?” I asked her. She scowled up at me, but it was a half-hearted look.
She climbed out of the box, stretching her limbs as though she had been in it for hours instead of a few minutes.
“So much fun,” she replied when she was finished. “Thanks for the help, city boy. Can I have the pills now?”
I started to reach into my pocket, deciding against it at the last moment. For the first time in my life, I realized that I had real leverage to do something I had always dreamed about. I’d never known where I came from, what the people who might have raised me were like. I had in my hand the opportunity of a lifetime, the key to first-hand experience of the tribes that so few citizens of the Martyrion ever had.