by Mark Tullius
28 Blocks
September 30, 2055
Frank Hollister strode through the shadow of Inner Block Four, sixty stories of steel and black solar windows. The particle pistol holstered under his jacket did little to ease his nerves. It wasn’t the residents. The smell from the aqueduct kept all but a handful inside the massive complex covering almost three square miles.
The demonstration was supposed to go down next Sunday night, but Gabriel had pushed up the meeting to eleven o’clock today. Gabriel had been acting paranoid. Frank hoped he just wanted to go over the plans one more time to be safe.
Frank stepped inside and joined the masses. All Blocks were designed exactly the same, fifty-nine floors of wall-to-wall dorms, one entrance on each side of the building. The first floor was the bazaar – clothing stores, electronic stores, a grocery store, movie theater, church, bank, and even a casino. Everything provided. No reason for anyone to ever leave.
Gabriel called it their prison. Everything could be locked down in sixty seconds.
Two teenagers stood off to the side of the stairs, both wearing black armbands. Neither looked familiar, but Frank hadn’t met everyone in the faction. Something wasn’t right with these two though. Something about their eyes. They seemed to be looking at nothing.
Frank moved through the bazaar, surprised how crowded it was, a sea of black and gray, the end color of everything. Usually he came in on Transport. It took him to the basement. He’d walk straight to Kyle’s room for briefing. Today Frank was coming from Controller Station #56. He worried someone had been following him, knew he’d been working as a snitch. Maybe this was a setup.
Frank slowed, let others bump past him as they hurried into the market, joined the fast-flowing stream to the pharmacy. Up ahead giant glass elevators sprouted from the middle of the open floor. Frank turned back. The two teenagers were gone.
Around the corner was the Confessional. A line of sinners snaked through the bazaar. Today was the day to pay dues or give names. It was easy to tell from the way most were standing which one they’d picked.
A Controller in black body armor stood at the Confessional’s entrance checking wrists.
A hand clamped down on Frank’s shoulder. “Hey man, how you doing?”
Frank spun around, already reaching for his gun, but stopped when he saw it was Steve Cooper, a guy he hadn’t seen since high school. Frank forced a smile, talked softly so Cooper would keep it down. “I’m good, I’m good. You scared the hell out of me though.”
Cooper laughed, looked smug in his shiny blue suit. “You live down here?”
“No, just here to see some friends.”
Frank’s little cousin, Kaiden, came over the Connect, a voice only Frank could hear. Exactly. Now get to it. Kaiden had just been promoted to Disciple and transferred to the Controllers. He clearly relished this new power over Frank, who used to torment him as a boy.
Frank ignored him and asked Steven, “How about you? You living here?”
“No, wife and I have a house on the skirts. Trying to stay close to my dad’s clinic.” In high school, Steven used to get the best drugs from his old man’s office.
“Skirts, huh? You should probably be heading home, right? Rush hour and all.”
“It’s Sunday, Frank.”
Today was only supposed to be a demonstration, but with Gabriel moving up the meeting, Frank feared this could get dangerous.
Kaiden warned Frank to be quiet. Frank eased open his jacket, exposed the butt of his pistol. “Head home.”
Before Steven could say anything, Frank walked off, tired of Kaiden bitching him out. You follow instructions, Frank. You hear me?
Frank turned down the controls so Kaiden could only hear what was spoken, not Frank thinking he was an asshole. Taking orders from a spoiled seventeen-year-old was becoming unbearable, but Frank was in too deep to speak up.
The liquor store was next to the Confessional. Frank thought it fitting as he headed to the back of the line. Gabriel and Kyle were standing right where Gabriel said they’d be, not thirty yards from the Confessional entrance. They were definitely on camera, but didn’t seem to care.
The Controller’s Station looked empty, but Frank knew it wasn’t. Six Controllers ran the complex of holding cells, another six on patrol. A dozen agents for 80,000 residents.
Frank turned up his Connect and thought, Gabriel’s here. With Kyle. Both in black coats.
Kaiden acknowledged him, told him to stop looking suspicious. There was a glass mechanical eye on the pole in front of him. Everything always on camera.
Frank noticed two more of Gabriel’s guys hanging by the fence.
Kaiden was no nonsense. Approach the faction leader.
If Gabriel heard those words, he’d laugh. He never saw himself above the resistance, just another body for the cause. Frank slipped out of line and stood in front of Gabriel, blocked him from the station’s camera. Frank forced a smile. “So, what’s new?”
Gabriel said, “There’s a change of plans.”
Frank had known Gabriel since they were young, but a lot had changed in the last seven years, and it wasn’t just the beard.
“What’s up?” Frank prayed to The Preacher that Gabriel was calling off the demonstration. Even a simple protest typically ended with people hurt, harsh warnings for lasting reminders.
Kyle, a stocky blonde punk with an eye patch, stepped forward. Gabriel’s right-hand man that never left his side. “How about we stop talking out here?”
They moved through the crowd and into a stairwell. Gabriel closed the door and said, “Things have escalated. We’re taking over the Block.”
Frank thought to Kaiden, Are you getting this? No response. Frank said, “Taking over how?”
Gabriel pinned a thumbnail camera to Frank’s jacket, patted him on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. Your job’s the same. We have two minutes. Are you in?”
Frank’s mind scrambled for an excuse, a reason why he had to leave the building. “What happened to the demonstration?”
Gabriel opened his jacket, gave a glimpse of all the weapons strapped underneath. “All you have to do is film. Take the internal as backup and don’t stop rolling.”
Frank thought, What should I do, Kaiden?
Still nothing. Frank figured this stairwell was blocking the connection. Maybe they’d brought him here because they knew who he was.
Frank looked up the stairs, didn’t see any more of their guys. “I still don’t understand what’s happening here.”
Kyle said, “All you have to do is film. Can you handle that or not?”
Frank didn’t need the recog software to know Kyle didn’t trust him, that Kyle would kill him if he knew Frank was a snitch. He said, “I can handle it.”
Gabriel zipped up his jacket. “We’re putting an end to this. The word will spread. We’re broadcasting everything.”
“What about Cameron?” Frank asked. Cameron was supposed to be filming too.
“Cameron got scooped up this morning. He’ll probably talk. That’s why it has to be now.”
“Okay, look,” Frank said. “Even if we take over, what then? If the other Blocks don’t participate, it means nothing.”
Gabriel said, “They’ll see the video and join. I have each leader’s word. Once this goes out, everyone will follow.”
Frank wanted to say no one would see the video, that the Controllers had already blocked the signal when they heard about the demonstration. Nothing would be transmitted until it’d been through their filter. Instead, he nodded along to Gabriel, glanced at the door. The Controllers were just outside. Frank wondered how far they were going to let this go.
Gabriel pressed a panel on the wall next to the stairs. A secret door slid open. A lanky kid in a trench coat stepped out, along with five other teenagers. Gabriel looked at Frank, rubbed his scraggly beard. “How do I look?”
“Determined.” Naïve.
Gabriel opened the door. His men filed out, clearing a path for Gabriel.
Frank moved left to get the Controller’s Station behind Gabriel, just like they’d planned.
Frank thought he’d hear Kaiden’s voice, but there was just a light buzzing noise. He wondered if Gabriel had jammed his Connection.
Gabriel raised both arms, a particle pistol in each hand. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the revolution!”
The Station’s door slid open and four Controllers rushed out, ran right for them. A circle of rifles aimed at their heads, the Controller in the middle shouting, “Get down! Get down on your knees.”
A crowd circled to watch the show, a wall of bodies behind the Controllers. Men and women inching closer. Gabriel kept his smile and slowly turned around. He shook his head. “No, you get on yours.”
“Drop your weapons!” a Controller yelled.
The wall of bodies came to life, a dozen men dashed in. They were all wearing black armbands, driving knives into the Controllers’ throats.
The resistance swept up the rifles, ran towards the Station, Gabriel and Kyle right behind them. Frank stood there shaking. “Holy shit.” The pooling blood spread across the tile, flowing around his boots.
Don’t be stupid. Just do what you’re told. Keep filming. Kaiden’s voice was back. Or had it been there all along? You want your parents getting a late night visit?
Frank chased after them. Kyle shattered the glass, tossed in a grenade. The blast cleared, and six resistance fighters slipped inside, shots fired. All but one came back out, announced it was clear.
Gabriel turned to Frank. “You getting all this?”
Frank could only nod yes.
“Follow me!” Gabriel led the way into the station, pushed aside the dead body on the chair, sat at the monitor. He looked at the camera on Frank’s chest. “The first step is separation from the Controllers. We don’t need you.” He punched in a code to seal the doors. Then he turned off the Transport. “No one will be leaving this building, no one will be entering.”
Kaiden, you there?
Gabriel rose. “We will no longer be controlled. We will no longer pay for our own enslavement.”
Gabriel stepped out of the station, two rows of men keeping the civilians back.
Frank positioned himself so he had Gabriel’s profile. A bead of sweat running down his forehead, Gabriel addressed the audience. “They created these Blocks to keep us contained, to keep us under their control. But these Blocks don’t belong to them. They belong to us!”
Some in the crowd cheered. Others looked uneasy, slowly backed away.
One guy in the front shouted. “They’ll kill us.”
Gabriel laughed it off. “They already are. They sent our brothers and sisters into South America to die for nothing.”
“What are you talking about?” the guy said. It was clear they had no idea what really was going on with the war. The confusion turned to anger. A woman said, “They’re going to be coming for us now!” Someone else shouted, “They’ll send in the drones!”
Panic rose. Screams, chaos, people pushing.
Gabriel told Frank to keep the camera focused on him. “This is for the good of our brothers and sisters. You have to see that.”
A little girl began crying. Gabriel was losing control.
Keep him talking, Kaiden said.
Gabriel’s face was bright red. More screams in the distance. Gabriel spoke of chemicals in the water, of microchips, and government spies among them. “Their lies are everywhere! But it all comes crashing down today!”
Yes! Got it.
Got what? Kaiden, where’s the cavalry?
No response.
Gabriel stopped midsentence. The panicking crowd was dispersing. A man fell. Trampled.
“Are we still broadcasting?” Gabriel said. “Frank?”
Frank turned away from the poor man and nodded, even though he knew they weren’t.
A deep voice came over the Connect. Third back on your left, gray hat, recogs. Stop him!”
Frank turned, searched the crowd, found the guy, who pulled out a particle pistol.
Frank went for his holster, tore out his gun. He was about to fire when he noticed the guy wasn’t aiming at a person, but at a silver orb hovering near the fourth floor.
Lankford, take him out!
Who the hell is Lankford? Frank thought.
A man with a black armband emerged from the crowd, fired three shots. The gray hat fell to the floor.
Seemed Frank wasn’t the only infiltrator.
The voice said, T-minus ten seconds.
Frank kept his gun out, steadied his shaking hand. Who is this? Where’s Kaiden?
Nine.
Frank went deeper into the Connect, saw Gabriel’s face on monitors around the city.
Eight.
Gabriel was speaking, his words already edited.
“Welcome to the revolution!”
Seven. Six.
“These Blocks don’t belong to them.”
Five.
“They belong to us!”
Four. Three.
“And today…”
Two.
“…it all comes crashing down!”
Oh God.
The first explosion came from the second floor. A cloud of plaster and glass rained down on the bazaar. Another blast hit the front entrance as a group of people tried to escape. More charges started going off everywhere. A family of three flew through the front of the electronics store. A shard of metal sliced off a woman’s arm. Everything slowed. Frank fell flat on his back, rolled to his side as Gabriel ran for the little boy, both of them buried under a collapsing wall.
What had they done?