Authors: Michelle Chaves
Frey was a little overwhelmed at
first as the shorthaired woman swept in. Her tight black leather top did little
to hide her bust. She had a white blouse underneath with big airy sleeves that
were tightened at the elbows. Her hair was black as night.
The woman helped Frey into the
bathroom. It was, surrounded by glass walls with a digital image of water all
along the walls. When you walked close, the water rippled.
In the middle of the room was a very
large square of steaming water, broad steps leading into it.
Tina helped Frey get out of her
bloody clothes and bandage, then carefully placed two sticky plastic pieces
over the wound, telling her it would keep the water and soap out.
Frey tried not to think about how
far she and Jin had had to walk to drag water back to the orphanage together
with Father Patrick. Sometimes the drain was empty and they had to go even
further. The worst times had been when they had to sneak into gang territory to
steal water from them.
Someone had changed the bedding
while she was gone, and there was a tray of food waiting for her. Frey sank
into the crispy sheets and was asleep before even having tasted it.
She woke again to find the room dark. The plate was
still there. Frey wolfed the food down, glad that no one was there to see her.
Something caught her eye and she
looked down to see a pile of very dirty, but neatly folded, clothes. She
reached out for her bandana, pulled the hidden pocket open and let the small,
sleek object fall into her palm.
She was convinced it had come from
this side… She washed her bandana with steaming water, rinsing it five times
before the water came away all clean. The color looked totally different when
all the grime was gone, and she stood there holding it for a while, amazed at
how red it looked.
She went back to bed, with the thing
safely back in the hidden pocket.
As soon as she sat up the lights went on and the glass
wall to her right faded into an image of an open hill covered in green grass.
Frey stared at it for a while before pulling the bedcover off, putting her bare
feet on the warm floor. As she got closer, the grass began to stir. She hovered
her hand tryingly over it and it stirred as if she controlled some magical
breeze. It wasn’t real, but it was still an improvement from the picture book
Father Patrick had cherished back at the orphanage.
“It must all seem strange to you,”
she heard Li say. Tina was next to him.
Frey looked back at the bizarre
wall. “Very,” she agreed.
Tina put down a pile of clothing
while Li put a new tray of food next to her bed. Li nodded to Tina and she gave
Frey a wink before leaving the room.
“Is there… is there anywhere else we
can sit? Just feel like getting out of bed for a while.”
Li smiled and picked up the tray of
food, leading the way to the living room just on the other side of the wall.
The big black screen covering one entire wall was apparently a TV. Shelved were
built into the other walls in shapes of giant letters, with books neatly tucked
into their corners.
In the middle was a large oval shape
extended from the roof, with a bright fire flickering inside it. Around the
strange fireplace there were tear shaped chairs hanging from the roof on white
strings, looking far too fragile to hold anything at all.
Li led them to a white sofa, shaped
like a triangle with smaller geometric cubes scattered around it. He put the tray
on a glass surface, this one also suspended from the roof like the tear shaped
chairs.
Frey
sat down slowly, biting down against the pain. She dared not lean back, lest
her wound reopen and bloody the crystal white sofa.
“How
long have I been… here?” she asked.
Li
looked surprised by her question and crossed his legs, putting one arm over the
backrest of the sofa. “Why, only since yesterday morning. You were unconscious
when Jon carried you into surgery but you woke up a couple of hours after that.
Do you remember the rest?” He asked, looking her in the eyes.
She
had the feeling he was trying to judge if she was suffering from the head
damage. “I remember.”
“Well,
I can’t say we’re not surprised to see you on your feet so fast. I used some
fast healing on you, but still. You were lucky the shot didn’t hit anything
vital, or you would not have been sitting here now.”
“We?
Who’re “we”? And why’d you save me?” She wanted to let the questions flow but
stopped herself, biting down on her tongue to do so.
“We
are a group of, well, I guess you could call us a sort of resistance.” He
gestured towards her. “In a way we are as hunted as well. The government have
known about us for quite some time now, they just underestimated how fast we
could grow and the damage we are capable of delivering.”
Frey
sat silent for a while. “So, who are you fighting?”
“The
three government houses.”
Frey
knew she probably looked as confused as she felt. Li seemed to see it clearly
enough.
“They
are the rulers.”
“Three
houses?”
“Well,
technically it is just one building, but it’s called three houses because of
the time when
Alya
was divided in-“
“
Alya
?” Frey asked, feeling utterly lost.
“Ah…
well, I’m not doing a very good job of explaining this…” he paused for a while
to just look at her, seeming to decide how much he was going to tell her.
Before
he had the time to continue, Frey asked another question, this one also taking
him by surprise. “How much do you know about me? About where I come from?”
Li rubbed
his chin, looking up at the roof. “Well, not a lot at all I’m afraid. We get
very little information from our inside Intel in Dome.”
Dome…
Well, that’s a word I do recognize…
But Frey was
convinced it meant something else to these people.
“He
works in the outer ring with the other scientists, about two rings from the
Hole,” Li continued.
“…Hole?”
“That
is what we call where you are from.”
“You
have anyone working for you from… Hole?” She asked, thinking hard who that
might’ve been.
To her
surprise Li laughed out loud. “Someone from Hole? God, no! I am the one taking
care of you because I’m calm in nature and a doctor firstly. I have had to
practically chain the others to the basement to stop them from attacking you
with questions.” Li stroke his shaved chin again and the humor slipped from his
voice. “No, Frey. You are the only one who has come out of Dome alive. We have
seen pictures, some recordings and bodies, but no. Never have anyone managed to
escape whenever taken out of Hole. Never until now…” Li crossed his hands over
his legs. “You have to understand I will not be able to tell you everything
right now. Firstly because your mind needs time to digest the information and
secondly because I’m not the right person to ask when it comes to some questions.”
“But…
how… how did you know I had escaped?”
“And
that is one of those. But I will do my best to explain none the less.” He
pulled in a small breath. “The contact in Dome told us of a double picking. He
was trying to get to one of the recordings of the interrogation. Our Intel
hacked into Dome’s recording system. They seemed to have some trouble locating
the second picking.” He nodded at her. “That was you. It was the first time
they could not pinpoint someone and it caused a lot of confusion among Dome
central.” He swept a stray strand of dark hair from his eyes.
“Who
would ever have thought that you would escape?” He was indeed very calm. “Our
Intel then heard them alerting security you were out and immediately called us.
From what I heard from Jon, it was the sound of the gunfire that made them find
you, so in a way, it saved your life.” Li stroke his chin again. “Again, this
is all something the youngsters could tell you more about than me. And if you
do not have anything you feel you
have
to ask now-” he said as he stood
up. “I advice you to eat your food and then get some rest. I
am
a doctor
after all and know a weary person when I see one.” Frey was tired, but still
had so many things to ask… “If you feel up for it in the morning, I will take
you to the basement where we have our headquarters. Then you can ask all the
questions you want.”
“Wait…
you said that no one leaves… Dome… but the ones who were taken out… they might
be alive?”
Li
shook his head at her. “No. I’m sorry Frey, but no one is kept alive more than
the time it takes them to interrogate them…”
What
interrogation
?!
Why are they pulling people out of Slum City
?!
And why the hell are they killing us
?!
Why is everything I’ve seen so far like the opposite of the Slum City? Why does
that Jon person have Jin’s face? Why did they try to kill me
?!!
Why the
hell
is there a City built around mine
?!!
Frey wanted to shout the questions at his face, grab the glass table and
hurl it into the damned glass walls and see at it all break into millions of
pieces. She wanted to hurt someone, blame someone, get her fingers around
someone’s neck and strangle them!
Suddenly
Li was at her side as if he had read her very thought. She hadn’t noticed she’d
stood up. Li circled his arms around her.
She
tried to fight it, but suddenly all the energy went out of her. It was all too
much. It all seemed like a dream and this was going to be over soon.
But
then the tears came and she knew she wasn’t about to wake up.
She
sobbed and shook, Li all the while holding her tight, not saying a word.
Frey
couldn’t stop her tears, or the raking sobs from escaping in loud wails. It was
like all the times she had held back, all the times when she had forced herself
not to show sorrow or hurt, swallowing her tears and pretended nothing was
wrong, all seemed to have piled up like an enormous mountain of pent up strain,
now breaking out from its enclosure and avalanching down on her.
She
had no idea for how long she cried, or how long she was clambering hold of Li’s
shoulders, but the sobbing slowly let its grip around her lessen and left a
throbbing in her chest and head.
Frey
slowly pushed away from Li, noticing they were sitting on the floor. She wiped
her face with her t-shirt. “I… I just feel like being alone for a while. Please,”
Frey said, her eyes sore and swollen.
“Just
tell the system if you need me or anyone else.” He stood up and pointed to the
food. “And please be a good patient and eat your food. You must be starving.”
Li left her alone in the gigantic living room and Frey pulled down the tray to
rest in her lap, eating all the food without really tasting it.
She
folded her arms around her legs and let big, hot tears roll down her cheeks.
This time she cried in silence.
Her wounds were
closing up fast. Injury wasn’t something new to her. You were never free of it
in Slum City. When she had asked Li about the abnormal healing speed, he had
told her that the fast healing helped the speeding as it was a cell built substance
that added to the body’s own. Her body had reacted very well to it since she
had never had it before. The more you used it, the more the body depended on
it. The one he had given her was purely a chemical creation, he assured her.
The
tight, dark grey singlet had been the darkest top in the pile. She also chose a
pair of dark pants with deep-set pockets. The embroidered flames running along
the left side of the singlet were so discreet you could only tell when the
light hit it in a certain way or if you ran your fingers over it.
There
were strange looking sandals next to the pile, glittering gems sewn into the
sides, creating delicate patterns. Next to them were a few other like the
first, like something more belonging on a shelf with a big sign saying: “look,
but don’t touch”, than on someone’s feet. The pair of shoes farthest to the
right
were
black and low cut, looking a lot like her
old sneakers but without the permanent grime. Frey didn’t have to think twice.
They fit her feet as if they’d been made for her.
“Tina
picked those out for you,” Li laughed. “I’m afraid the boys downstairs chose
the rest.”
With
all the tangles out of her hair, the braid now reached the small of her back. She
knew she looked different. Having looked at herself in the mirror she had been
a bit shocked herself. Her big green eyes stood out suddenly. Her hair was dark
brown, where it before had seemed black, and it didn’t look like a basket of
knotted rope anymore.
Frey
fell in behind Li while she rubbed her arm, still having a hard time seeing her
skin so clean. The scarring stood out all the more and she was reminded of all
the times she and Jin, had ended up bloody and hurt.
Li led
her through his apartment and Frey marveled at how big it was.
The
glass elevator was uncomfortable. Frey had never feared heights, but caught
herself
holding onto the rail on both side, imagining the
floor crack below her feet.
“It is
quite safe,” Li assured her.
“Why
does everything have to be made of bloody glass?”
“Why…”
Li said slowly, as if he hadn’t given it much thought. “That’s how it’s always
been, and I’ve been around for some time, mind you.”
“How
old are you?” She asked, having wondered that for some time now.
They
were going down very fast judging from everything speeding past.
Li
looked at her for a while. “Older than I look…” He wouldn’t say more and she
didn’t press him.
It
took them another twenty seconds to reach the basement. And yes, basement was
finally a word that seemed to fit the description in her eyes. The only
exception was that the roof was high.
It was
like a labyrinth with all the tables and walls, screens and boards, glassed in
rooms, computers and cords practically everywhere. It was organized chaos.
To the
left was a kitchen area, simple and reminding her of home, although these were
clean and with not one scratch visible on the surfaces. Farthest to the right
was a couple of slide doors, these ones black and
not
made out of glass.
One for women and one for men.
“Toilets,”
Li said while they snaked their way around tables and shelves, moving towards
the wall at the end, where a black screen covered the entire wall. It was
showing recordings of different parts inside the Dome building.
Every
face turned to watch her as she walked past and Frey felt
herself
tense at being the
centre
of attention. People were
whispering and pointing, but Li told them to get back to work and they did.
She
recognized most of the equipment.
The computers, the televisions
screens, the printers and scanning machines, cameras and film cameras.
There was a lot more she had seen before but never known the purpose for.
Compared to all the other eclectic equipment so far, this looked old and worn.
“This
equipment cannot be traced or hacked. The basement also cuts off any modern
communication device,” Li explained when she asked. They made their way up to
the big screens at the end.
The
man Jonas and Tina, Frey recognized. There were three others, sitting at one
desk each, two of them with headphones on, only covering one ear.
“Jon
and Tina you have met. Our two hackers are Harry and
Lallie
.
They happen to be twins, even if they do not look it and work with decoding
information from whatever line we can tap into. Harry you have actually met as
well.
“Almost
broke my finger,” he said holding his hand up.
Li
ignored him. “The big man is Lukas. He is part of our solider Intel together
with Jon. They work undercover for the guard force. Tina is our computer
technician. She also handles getting us past firewalls and such obstacles.” Li
looked at them in turn. “Don’t bury her with questions,” Li said before turning
to Frey again. “I am off to maintain my outwards appetence, if there is anything
you need, just ask anyone here and they will help you. I will be back tomorrow
morning,” the latter he said to the rest of the group as well.
Frey
turned to Tina as she came up to her, Li heading back to the elevators. “He’s
the most famous cell developer in
Alya
. He’s also the
only reason we’re able to have come so far. Without his help and his
investment, we would be… well, not here. Coffee?”
“Ah,
no.” It was the second time Frey had heard the name
Alya
and by now she was pretty sure it was the name of this city.
Tina
went off to the kitchen area. Frey glanced up at Jonas and found
herself
wondering if Jin had really been as tall as this man
was. He wasn’t as big as Lukas, who looked ready to fight a bull, but they
still competed in height.
The
man with Jin’s face did a poor job at hiding his surprise as he took her in,
but she didn’t blame him. Compared to what they had hauled into the truck she
knew it was like night and day.
Frey
stood a little straighter and met his eyes, knowing that was something Jin
always hated. It was almost creepy when Jon made the same crooked downward
twist of the mouth and looked away.
“You
look good,” Tina said as she came back with two white, tall cups. “Got some
water for you. Let’s go into the conference room,
it’s
quite and private.”
Lukas
pushed off the wall as Harry and
Lallie
stood up to
be replaced by two others. Jon followed right behind Tina and Frey.
Damn
these people are tall…
Frey could feel her muscles tense as they did whenever
she felt threatened or prepared for a fight. She forced herself to relax with
some difficulty.
They
sat down around a very normal looking table, and except for the digital glass
screen and the white package of something
laying
in
the middle of the table, she could recognize every object in here.
Frey
already felt more comfortable from the little time she had spend down here than
all the time spent in “her” room. This place, she could at least connect to.
Luke
slid the door close behind them, shutting out all the outside noise. He then
strode to
leaned
back against it, arms crossed. Jon
sat next to her, Tina to her left and the twins on the other side. She had a
feeling they all had at least as many questions as her.
Their
questions might tell her a thing or two about this place and who they were. “Li
told me there were things you wanted to know.”
The
others exchanged a few glances, apparently having expected her to start.
Harry
leaned forward, not able to keep the eagerness out of his voice. “Then I’ll
start. How did you do it? I mean, the escape part? You made it hard for them to
get you out and then they couldn’t use the sleep smoke on you. So how? How did
you do it?” This was something all of them wanted to know she guessed, since
they all looked at her with eyes that spoke of hunger.
Sleep
smoke… so that’s what they use to get in and out silently. That’s why no one
ever saw anything and why the orphanage was still half asleep, the beggars all
knocked out…
Frey
told them what had happened, starting from nightfall. She told them everything
up until when the shot had pierced her stomach.
“Did
you see any of the layout in Dome when you were escaping?”
Lallie
asked.
Frey
shook her head, frowning. “Not really.”
Not like I had time to go
sightseeing…
“Do
you know anyone on the inside, trying to get out? A sort of hidden resistance
maybe?” Harry asked.
Frey
couldn’t help but laugh at that. It was a short bark with no merit in it
whatsoever.
Oh my God. They’ve got no idea.
“Whoever stick their necks
out too far, or ask one too many questions, disappear. No warning, no trace
left behind.” She looked up at Jon first, then over to the rest. “That’s enough
to keep people from asking where I come from.”
“But
not you?” Jon asked. She found it hard to look away from his eyes.
“I was
four when my mum was murdered. Someone broke into our apartment, looking for
something. She shoved me in a closet. There was a hole at the bottom of it and
I could see everything. Over the wail from the street and screams inside the
building, no one heard mine. Maybe someone tipped one of the gangs that there
were valuables in there, I don’t know. When it was over I cried and wondered
why they had killed her.” She shrugged her shoulders a little and crossed her
arms.
“Anyway,
after that I lived on the street until I found the orphanage. Two years later,
I found the first hidden camera.
A year after that, another.
Then I stared looking for them. It became a sort of game. I found more, but
they were all too far away to reach.” The others sat silent and still around
her, waiting for her to continue. “That’s what probably saved me from getting…
‘
pulled
out’, or whatever you call it. I don’t think
anyone could really tell I was trying to get to the cameras.” She shrugged
again. “The fact that more of the drop were made the older I got didn’t do much
to lessen my urge to question.”
“Oh,
you mean the package?” Harry asked. “We only have a little information about
that. Even Chris is unauthorized to access any more from it.”
“That’s
what makes us so interested in it,” Jon said. “If not even Chris can get to it
from
his
position…”
“Then
it has to be something
very
important,” Tina concluded. “The question is
why? Why are they keeping the package a secret?”
“What
I want to know is why they’re throwing it down there in the first place, like
dog treats to a pack of starving beasts!” Frey said.
The
others looked at her,
Lallie
shifted in her chair
while Harry scratched his neck, looking away. Lukas just closed his eyes and
Tina looked like she wanted to say something but couldn’t.
“You
don’t droppings here, that for sure,” Frey said, leaning over the table pushing
her finger hard into the surface as if to make her point. “People kill each
others for the droppings. If it ends up near gang territory, then it’s a bloody
massacre. You’re saying they don’t share the information with their staff, or
whatever they are, at Dome? The packages must have a purpose, right?”
“Frey,”
Tina said softly. “We don’t know.”
Frey
covered her face in her hands, pushing her fingers hard into her temples. What
was she doing here? Why had all of this ever happened?
Nothing makes sense…
“One
thing’s for sure and that’s that we have been here fighting Dome and the three
houses for years and others before us. We won’t be giving up now,” Jon said
into the silence.
Frey
looked up. The same features as Jin, the very same stubborn expression he got
when pulling his eyebrows together.
The same voice.
To her
surprise the giant, Luke, spoke. “We don’t understand, not yet. But we are
trying to.”
Frey stood up, suddenly feeling like the room was too
full of people. They didn’t come from where she came from… how could they ever
know what her life had been like? Even if she sat down and talked for years,
they still wouldn’t get it. “Shit,” she said.
She felt a heavy hand on her shoulder. “We might seem
very alien to you, but we still have a heart like you, and we do name ourselves
the resistance for a reason. We want to change things around here, change what
the government and Dome is doing. But to do that we need all the help we can
get. I don’t think you know how lucky we are to have met you.” Luke waited for
Frey to look up at him again. “We need you, but more than anything else, Frey,
we need you to
trust
us.”