Authors: Michelle Chaves
He did make a lot of sense. She hadn’t expected him to
tell her the latter, but the rest did make sense.
“I think we need a break. Jon, why don’t you take Frey
up to the roof? She hasn’t been outside since she came, right?”
Luka’s asked Jon, releasing his grip on her.
“Come back down whenever you feel ready,
hun
.” Tina told her as she filed out with the others,
leaving Jon and her alone.
The words stuck as if her tongue was glued to the roof
of her mouth. She followed him in silence as he led the way back to the
elevators, wondering why she didn’t dare ask the question that was the very
loudest within her, yelling and fighting to be heard.
Jon touched the
green holographic image above the number fifty.
“So,
who owns the rest of the building?” Frey asked as they were making their way to
the top. Jon turned to her. His red-
ish
blond hair
was tied at the nape of his neck with a black string, a few strands having come
loose at the front. It hurt to see him even wearing his hair the same way as
Jin. Their personalities and expressions were so alike that it was impossible
to dismiss as a coincident. They truly could have been one and the same person…
He
leaned back against the side of the elevator, arms crossed. Jin did that when he
was troubled or cranky. When he was his normal happy go lucky, he would
spontaneously rub Frey’s hair, or clasp his hands behind his neck while walking
or standing.”
“Li
owns it.”
“Huh?”
“Li.
He owns the building, all of it.”
“The whole
thing? Sorry, got distracted there for a while,” she said.
“That’s
fine.” He kept his posture.
The “I’m not totally happy” pose.
The
words came out before she could stop herself. “What’s troubling you?” She knew
what Jon would do before he did it and it made her feel strangely at ease. This
was something she knew, a situation she could deal with.
Jon
unfolded his arms to shove them into the front of his light grey pants,
shuffling his legs a bit as he looked over her head and to the side before
looking back down at her. “Well… I don’t know. It’s just strange, you know.
We’ve never been able to make contact with anyone from Hole throughout all this
time. We’ve seen a snapshot here and there, or short recordings but that’s it,
and now we have a person from Hole right here… a
person
.” He shrugged.
“How can you know what to expect from that? You’re…”
“Not
what you expect?” Frey asked, having taken over the stance with her arms
crossed.
“Well,
no… and yes… I don’t know. I guess I’m still confused at the speed of
everything.”
The
elevator stopped and the door slid open. Focusing on him had helped her avoid
looking down, imagining those cracks
spider-webbing
from her feet.
“I
just can’t believe how lucky we were. A couple of seconds later and they would
have killed you.” He stepped out onto the open platform that was nothing like
what Frey had expected. “Well, I guess you must feel the same to say the
least.”
Frey
moved slowly into the garden. She suspected her mouth was ajar, but wasn’t able
to close it.
It was
huge. Trees and bushes spread out around them, an actual lake opening up on her
right, with benches and little paths twisting between the foliage. There were
open places where patches of grass stretched like smaller fields, others that
were packed with trees. Somehow she knew the scale of it shouldn’t surprise
her.
But it
did. Nature was a thing that didn’t thrive in Slum City… The sight baffled her
and Frey wondered when she would stop being able to sustain more information…
Probably
when I die.
But as
amazing that the greenery was, it wasn’t what her eyes stopped at. The entire
place was covered with a glass cupola, this one so clear and clean it was hard
to even make it out. It was nothing like the hazy digital projection of dome.
This one let the sky, the real
sky
shine through in with all its
splendor and light.
Frey
hadn’t realized until then how very little she had been able to take in while
escaping from Dome.
She
moved towards the closest patch of open grass, feeling like she was walking in
a dream or something. After standing in the grass for three long heartbeats she
just sat down. Jon came after her. She fell back in the grass.
“I… I
just need to lay her for a while…” She breathed, not taking her eyes off from
the clear blue sky. Her knees were still shaking. She could hear Jonas lying
down next to her. This was just what she and Jin used to do. Laying down on a
rooftop together, looking up at a sky.
But
this is the real thing…
Jon
crossed his hands under his head as he stretched out.
“They
told us the dome was supposed to protect us from radiation and the forces of
nature. Without it, we’d die. I kept asking myself all these questions and
never understood why there weren’t any openings built into The Wall, or who was
doing the drop if nothing could survive on the outside.”
“And
as soon as anyone asked any questions…”
“They
disappeared,” she said again.
Jon
was silent for some time. “Who told you what the dome was there for?”
“I
don’t know. It was just information everyone knew. It was just common
knowledge; like that the city’s called Slum City. Although I don’t know if we
named it ourselves.” Frey felt like she was talking to Jin. She knew him too
well to stop. “We weren’t told anything even close to the truth,” Frey said.
“God, we never knew anything
at all
!”
“Hey,”
Jon said as he propped himself to the side. She forced herself to look away
from the sky. “I know it’s probably a lot for you to take in right now, with
everything else you have seen and heard, but I think you would rather know.” He
sat up and crossed his legs. Frey did the same, more slowly. “My grandpa loved
to tell stories from his upbringing and as a kid, I loved to hear it. He told
me of the time before the voting, before Hole existed. There was a big gap
between rich and poor and the city was having trouble with murder, theft, riots
and destruction of property. The amount of poor grew and the problem escalated
until it became a real danger to the wealthy society.”
“The
three houses wanted to find a more permanent solution to the problem than
building enclosures around the rich parts to protect the wealthy. They felt
closed in, caged and didn’t keep it a secret that they thought it should be the
other way around. Maybe they got the idea from the situation, or maybe they had
a bigger plan all along. Whatever the cause, there was a voting when grandpa
was just a teenager.” Jon scratched his smooth chin, the only thing keeping him
and Jin apart. “They even let the kids vote. The whole plan was to close in a
part of the old city and build a wall around it. Unanimous decision. Hole was
built and Dome around it. He told me that one week the poor were, causing
trouble and the next they were gone, only a few stragglers here and there.” Jon
raked a hand through his hair. “It sounds like they must have erased the
memories of the people they put in Hole and that would explain why no reaction
was caused from those put in after…”
“What
do you mean, “after”?” Frey didn’t want to interrupt him, but felt she had to.
“Well,
in
Alya
, if you commit a crime, say like rape or
murder or abuse, you are sent to Hole. But the surest way to be sent there is
to become poor.”
“What
?!
”
“If
your economical situation goes below a certain amount, the bank will contact
the three houses and they will look into your situation, deciding your fate.”
Jon shrugged. “At least that’s my theory.”
Frey
found she had to stifle a harsh laugh, lest Jon thought she’d gone crazy
herself. “So they put their problems in a little cage and throw away the key. And
this is the government you live under? And you people
know
about this?
It’s common knowledge and, what? No one cares?”
“The
government had the decision settled about creating Hole long before the voting
begun. They all saw a way to bask safely in their wealth and they took it. Hide
the horrible and ugly truth and soon it’s easy to ignore it even if it’s still
right under your nose.” Jon pulled a strand of grass away from the rest. “After
a while it’s just
like
everything else. It became a
part of everyday life and if you ever thought of questioning it…” He tossed the
strand aside. “Let’s just say that those people weren’t around for long.
Suddenly their income was spent and there might even be traces of a sudden
murder, the evidence leading straight to you. All the three houses need to do
is approve the accusation and throw you into Hole.” Jon laughed out loud,
staring at the ground. But it was a shaky laugh. “Ask questions here and you
are thrown into Hole, ask question in Hole and you are pulled out. Either way,
they seem to be doing a pretty god job at killing us.”
Frey
hadn’t wanted to hear them comparing the troubles of Slum City with their
Alya
, but now she wasn’t so sure anymore. In a way they
were very alike.
The three houses kept rebellion in check
using fear.
Fear of the unknown.
Very clever and very effective.
She looked at
Jon and thought of the massive complex underneath them and of all the people
who were working against the government. They all knew what would happen if
they were caught and yet they still did it.
“Why?”
They sat so close they almost touched and Frey wondered how they could have
ended up so close. “I mean, why are you doing this?”
Jon
gave her a crooked smile and shook his head a little. He
stroke
his stubby chin with his thumb. “My dad never liked grandpa. Grandpa was one of
the richest men in
Alya
for years. He was obsessed
with success and money. Grandpa also never gave anything away for free. “Greedy
bastard”, dad used to say when he talked about him. He got kids pretty late,
more by a mistake than anything and was already seventy when he got dad.”
“Seventy?
Are you serious
?!
”
Jon
laughed a little at that. “It’s not like it’s
that
old.”
A
chill went through her. “What’s the normal lifespan here?” She asked suddenly.
“Well,
with the help of cell enhancement, I’d say around hundred and twenty, give or
take a few years.” He looked uncomfortable after seeing her expression.
Frey
couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “No one in Slum City reaches sixty. No
one,” she said, knowing he wasn’t the one to blame, but not able to control
herself.
Jon
didn’t have an answer for that. He just shook his head after a while.
“So,
how old does that make you?” He didn’t look older than Jin, but now she wasn’t so
sure. He could be going on seventy
himself
for all she
knew.
Jonas
laughed quietly, a deep chuckle. “I haven’t been around for that long.”
Frey
couldn’t help but smile at his tone. She pulled at her long braid.
“You
know, it’s strange. I don’t normally… tell people about my life, even those
I’ve known for years. You're making me talk.”
“I’ll
take that as a compliment,” she said, trying to hide the nervousness. Jin had
said the exact same words to her when they had first met.
“Anyway,
when my grandpa died, dad wasn’t too sad to see him go. And he wasn’t the only
one. Grandpa had gotten himself enemies.” There was a short pause and Jon
scratched his ear with his little finger. “The man who murdered him was sent to
Hole. He had two kids and a wife. The wife was sent to Hole soon after and the
kids put into another rich man’s home. I’m not overly convinced the wife had
done the things she was accused off.” He pulled off another strand of grass, a
habit that made him seem younger. “Makes me wonder about the accusations on the
man who was said to have murdered grandpa.”
Frey
shifted a little. “You think the three houses set him up?” She asked.
“I
think they are as power hungry as he was. He wanted to become a ruler of the
three houses and was becoming a threat to them. They made sure he would never
be one, using permanent measures.” Jon played with a little flower growing by
itself next to his knee. He didn’t pull it out.
“My
dad listened to me about as much as you would to any of the furnisher. He was a
lot more like grandpa than he would ever admit. When I was eleven, I told my
mum of the suspicions I had about grandpa’s death. I don’t think she was ever
so scared in her life. I can’t remember what she said to me, or how she said
it, but I remember I never shared any of my thoughts after that.” He frowned.
“She
left shortly after. She just packed her things and was gone, telling no one
where she was going. I wouldn’t have minded if she’d gone alone, but she took
my little sister with her…” Now their knees were touching. “I was recruited by
the government patrol around fifteen. I thought it would be a great opportunity
to get closer to the government that way and try to learn more about Hole.
That’s where I met Luke.” Jon paused for a few seconds, seeming to think back
all those years. “He must have seen something in me then, something I thought I
hid very well, because he shook my hand one time after training and I could
feel the note he passed to me through it. “Careful what you show outwards.
Library 10pm. Man in white coat will be there”, the note said.”
“He
was talking about Li.”
“Yes.
I went, controlled face and all and met Li for the first time.” He put his
weight on one hand and cocked his head to the side. “After two days I was one of
the resistance and I’ve worked with them since. The more I heard about Hole,
the more I wanted to know about it. When I saw the first recording from down
there, I finally understood how very human you were.”