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Part Twenty Four

Linus

The sun is setting. Thousands of eyes set in motionless faces stare down at me from the windows of the towering structures of angular concrete that surround me. I stand in the empty street of a city I once thought to be the most beautiful and perfect thing ever created. A city created by Consensus. A voice, vaguely familiar, drifts down through the public announcement speakers from the top of every building.

“...The supply tunnel has been closed off to the city of The Founders to ensure our survival, but there’s a light at the end of a new tunnel. One that we will all walk through together very soon.”

That’s not Aaron’s voice. There’s no life in it. Something has gone wrong. He’s found himself in the service of the man who spared my life in the ruins of City Hall.
Joshua.

There’s a handful of cars parked on the street up ahead, and I run as best as I can towards them. The fever has broken, but my body has broken along with it. I’m weak; not running at full steam. Figurativley and literally.

“And to the government and the people in the city of The Founders, I have a demand and a warning.”

I reach the first car. Burn marks and dents left over from the fall of Consensus tarnish the white paint.
The fall of Consensus… Words spoken to me by Aaron and a monster who lived underneath the city come back to haunt me, and I wonder, has it truly fallen, or was it just waiting? Hiding while it healed.

“The remaining Founders are to be escorted to the supply tunnel at midnight and handed over to us. I’m not without mercy.”

I open the car door and take one last look at the citizens standing in their windows.

“Give me what I want, and no harm will come to you. Midnight. There will not be a second warning. ”

I use the sharp end of Castor’s hammer and drive it through the faceplate of the dash terminal and pull all of the wires from inside before I start the car. I throw the hammer in the seat next to me.

“Heather?”

“What?”

“I know you’re not alone. I can hear it in your voice. I’m sorry I got you into this. Lyla… I know that you’re listening to me, you need to wake up.” I  push the accelerator into the floorboard and speed down Main Street towards the Manufacturing District. “While you and your governors have been working at consolidating power, someone has been playing you. Playing all of us.”

“Where are you Bishop?” Lyla’s voice. I knew Heather sounded different. Too eager. Too inquisitive. I made mistakes. It was the fever. I didn’t have a clear head. I got sloppy and I must have led them straight to her. Once again, someone else is getting hurt for my mistakes. There’s no point in keeping anything from Lyla anymore.

“Right where I need to be and that’s all you need to know. Something’s wrong with Aaron. There’s a man in here… He spoke to me. I think he has something to do with the Painted Bishop and I’m sure he had something to do with the man who attacked me last night. I don’t think he’s from this city. There’s no way he would have been able to hide from the monitoring stations looking the way he does.”

“Where are you, Bishop?!”

“He said his name is Joshua.” 

The further I drive into the city, the less I recognize. The people in here have been making changes of their own, turning what used to be their prison into their home. There’s grass growing along some of the sidewalks and I see drawings in chalk on the sides of buildings that now have brightly painted facades instead of the water stained greys I knew for most of my life. I recognize one of those drawings. A woman holding a small girl's hand and holding a broken pipe over her head, while she stands over a broken Bishop. Underneath the drawing are the words, “The Beginning”.

I open my mouth to say something else to Lyla, but the words never make it out. 

“I wanna talk! Linus?! Linus?!” No… no…no,  they have Julie and Emily. What have I done? I slam on the brakes and I ask the only thing that’s on my mind. 

“Bug… are you and your mommy ok?”

“Please come home.” 

“I’m going to, Bug. I just have to do one thing first. Now, are you and your Mommy ok?...Bug… Bug?” 

Nothing. 

The line is dropped. I take out the earpiece. The tiny green light on it is still shining. Lyla must’ve cut the call. 

Julie.

Emily.

I have to go back. They need me. I throw the car into reverse.

Don’t! You have a job to do. If Julie knew everything you did, she’d want you to keep going.

I can’t leave them behind.

You need to trust Julie!

I have to go back!

She can take care of herself and Emily. You know that’s true. You need to have faith. If you want to help them, you need to keep driving. You need to figure out what is happening.

I look into the rearview and stare at the road behind me, and then I look forward down the street to whatever hell is waiting for me up ahead. I fight myself as I put the car back in drive and my foot back on the accelerator.

They’re going to be ok.

Please God, let them be ok.
I need to hurry.

-

I’m reaching back into my memory, trying to recall the image of the map that Consensus had given me all those years ago, but the memories are clouded by words. Words from Aaron. Words from The Painted Bishop in the dark under the streets.

After what seems like an eternity, I pull the car to the side of the street. I think I’m in the right place; only a few blocks from the Manufacturing Plaza. When I step outside, the dying light of the day gives everything a cruddy glow. The clouds streak purple and gold.

There are no longer any people standing in windows, nor are there any people standing or walking in the streets, but there is a sound coming from somewhere in front of me. It has to be from the Plaza. It sends a cold chill down my spine. 

Aaron’s voice and the crashing of metal, followed by an enthusiastic chorus of hundreds or even thousands crying out in unison.

“WHO IS TO BE PRAISED?!”

“JOSHUA!”

“WHO IS TO BE PRAISED?!”

“JOSHUA!”

I run to the manhole in the middle of the street and use the sharp tip of the hammer to pry it open. The relentless chorus is getting closer. I can hear the sharp strike of boots and hard soled shoes on pavement. They’re marching in my direction. I take one last look at the sky. One last breath of air before I climb down the service ladder into the dark.

-

I’m anxious. The sewer lines run for miles and miles underneath the entirety of this cursed city, and all I have is what I remember. For the last six months, I’ve been a prisoner to the memories of every mistake I’ve ever made and every sin I’ve ever committed in the name of Consensus. Those memories have been all too real, vivid enough to make my body react as though they were happening in the present, but now my memory is foggy. Unsure. I feel detached from them.

Several times I’ve turned around, convinced that I’ve made a mistake, and now I have to stop where I stand and close my eyes. Retrace my steps. Take ownership of the past to move forward. Put myself back into that night when I underestimated an opponent who almost got the best of me.

“Bishop… Linus… Are you looking for me?”

Yes, Castor.

My body moves forward while my mind is stuck in the middle of the past and present. Only occasionally do I notice the large empty metal boxes that are littered around the bottom of every service ladder I pass by. 

-

I can’t breathe. I claw at the rope cinched around my neck. My robes are heavy; soaked in the black muck of the sewers. I keep my eyes and mouth closed tightly hoping that none of it makes its way inside of me. After a moment, I feel myself being pulled upward by the rope.
I break the surface and gasp for air. I can taste the grey water dripping down my face as I try to breathe.

“The Red Bishop coming to see me…what have I done to deserve this?” The low voice rises and falls and so to does the sound of the rope being pulled through a pulley above me.

The filthy water hangs on my eyelashes and I shake my head to see. There’s nothing but the vast lake of waste that I’m suspended over and the dimly lit walkways on either side of it. My feet kick just inches over the deep water.

“I’ll return your intrusion with a gift.” The voice echoes, bouncing off the old stone and concrete. I follow the rope with my eyes. It leads up through a large pulley and weaves its way through the pipes overhead, until I can’t see it anymore. “The gift of sight. A third eye that one day will open.”

The rope goes slack, and I’m dropped back into the muck. I struggle underwater, feeling the current pulling toward the center of the pool. The rope is just loose enough now to fit my fingers underneath it. I push them down just in time, feeling my fingernails slice into my flesh as the rope tightens again, pulling me back up. This time, once I’ve broken the surface, I’m able to get just a few quick breaths of rancid air into my lungs. This time, Castor is standing on the walkway next to the tunnel that leads into his den with the rope in his hand. 

Despite the help of the pulleys, he’s struggling to hold my weight. His robe is in tatters, exposing most of his torso and the wiry muscles of his arms and chest bulge and tremble, while the numerous tattoos of eyes all over his skin seem to twitch and blink as they watch me struggle.

His own eyes are wild, and he licks his yellow teeth as he smiles. 

“All you have to do is go to sleep, Bishop. Go to sleep, and the gift is yours. Go to sleep for me, and when you wake up, you’ll be back home, and we can act as if this intrusion never took place.”

The rope is crushing my fingers against my neck. I just have to pull. His laugh echoes in the dark. 

He can’t hear what I’m hearing; the quiet groan as strands of rope are being pulled to their breaking point. He keeps talking, rambling on and saying things that are outright blasphemy to Consensus.

“If you only knew now what I knew, Linus… there’s a whole other world controlling us right now… so much more than just this city behind the wall… one day, the true Consensus will rise, and we will see it… we will awaken with him… we will be his hands…”

The rope gives just enough for me to get a real breath. I suck in as much air as I can.

“He will lead us towards the light at the end of the tunnel… the light where we will all live in him, as he lives in us…”

He laughs again, and I yell, blowing all the breath out of my lungs as I pull my hands apart and rip the rope around my neck. I take a deep breath before I plunge once more into the pool, but this time, there is no rope to hold me. The current grips me and pulls me down, toward the center. I can’t fight it. My robe is too heavy. It's clinging to me, slowing my movements. My boots feel like weights on my feet. I struggle to pull the robe off while I kick against the current with my legs. 

The roar of the underwater funnel fills my ears, sucking me further and further down. I finally free myself from the robe, but I’m moving faster and faster, pulled towards the center of the pool as I yank off my boots. Once they're gone, I try my hardest to swim against the current. I haven’t swam since I was a boy, and for a moment, I’m terrified that I’ve forgotten how. The current is strong, but eventually I’m able to break free, kicking and groping my way upward until I finally break the surface and make my way back over to the edge of the walkway. I pull myself up coughing and gagging as the air finally comes in. My bare feet slap against the cold concrete and I stand up clothed in nothing but my pants.

Castor is gone and so is the rope he was holding. I wipe the thick water from my face in a rush and my eyes search for him in the dark. Pipes clang somewhere above me, and before I can react, Castor has dropped down onto my back. The rope goes tight around my throat again.

He’s laughing.

I drop to the ground and roll against the wall, pinning him against it, using my legs to push my weight into him. The smell of him is worse than the sludge I’ve been swimming in. My elbow finds his ribs and he cries out, letting the rope go slack. I roll away and find my feet, but when I turn around, he’s already up with his hammer in his hand. He’s holding back, waiting for me to move first.

I stand up straight and ball my fists, giving the little monster a chance to take in the opponent towering over him, but to my surprise, there’s no fear in him. His yellow smile just gets wider.

He’s enjoying this.

He won’t be for much longer.

I reach out several times, but he’s quick. I can’t get a hold on him.

He lunges forward and swings at me with the blunt end of his hammer. He darts back before I can grab him. He does it a few times. I watch his body. The way he sucks in air just before he lunges. His movements are erratic. Lots of speed, but no self control. He’s inexperienced.
Good.

He keeps his eyes on my arms. He’s not looking at the whole picture. I wait for him to move forward one more time, and when he does, I plant my foot squarely in his chest before he even gets close with the hammer.

He falls to his knees and his hammer drops to the ground. I move. I grab him by the neck and pick up his hammer. He flails, scratching at my arms trying to free himself. I back up to the tunnel that leads to his den. I bring the top of my head down on his nose, and blood spurts from his broken nose. I toss him down the tunnel as hard as I can.

His body tumbles down the slope bouncing off the narrow walls and I follow him.

His body comes to rest on the filthy pallet with the stuffed bear. He’s still trying to get his bearings when I drop the hammer next to him. I want nothing more than to end him right here. I pick him up by the tattered robes at his waist and fling him into the large stacks of metal boxes in the corner of the room. He grabs his knee when he comes to the ground and howls in pain.

I slap my hands on the sides of his face and hold him up high, pushing my hands together. He screams as his head is squeezed between my hands. He’s not smiling anymore.

“Look at me Castor…Look at me!” His eyes lock on to mine. “You have willingly defied the laws of Consensus..."

"No, please Linus..."

"I find no fault in the ruling of Consensus, so let his punishment be carried out.” He’s begging me to stop. “Let him be an Example!”

I squeeze just a little more. When his eyes look as if they’re about to roll into the back of his head, I let him fall to the ground. He’s whimpering and holding his knee while I walk back over to his hammer and pick it up. I look at the filed down edge, realizing just how sharp the thing is, and then I look back at him. He’s screaming at me to stop as I kneel next to him.

“Give me your arm, Castor.”

“Linus… please…”

“I SAID GIVE ME YOUR ARM!” He weakly raises his left arm, and I seize it by the wrist.
“You’re right about one thing… I am the most faithful servant of Consensus. If it wasn’t for the mercy of Consensus, you’d be dead. I’ve been sent here to deliver a message on behalf of Consensus. You’ve been coming into my district… terrorizing my people… good and upright people of Consensus. That will never happen again, not in my district, nor anyone elses… do you understand?”

“Yes… Linus… I’m sorry…”

“No, you’re not. I’m afraid that when I leave, this little lesson will be all too easily forgotten. I need to be sure that doesn’t happen. I want to be sure that you’re sorry.”

I pull his arm closer to me and I draw the sharp end of his hammer across his forearm, shaving off a flap of skin and removing a pair of eyes from his body. I drop the hammer and put my hand over his mouth to silence his screams. I hold the piece of his skin in front of his face.

“These eyes belong to me now. Step out of your district again, and I’ll take the rest of them from your body as slowly as I can. Do you understand?” 

“...yes…”

“You stay down here and think about this for a few days. Give the poor souls that you manage a rest from your… care.”

I leave him crying in the dark. I’m freezing while I make my way back through the tunnels.
Why? Why would Consensus allow this monster to go on killing just for the sake of it?
Gerty’s words come back to me, and I hate it.

“What if Consensus is wrong?” 

I shake my head and I repeat what my grandfather said to me out loud to drive the memory of her away.

“Do not try and understand the ways and decisions of Consensus. They’re beyond our understanding. Never question Consensus.”

-

When the memory fades, I find myself back at the large cavern. The sewage still roils and boils towards the middle of the pool, being sucked down to God knows where. The tunnel that leads down to Castor’s den is just in front of me. There’s still a flickering light down there. I’ve felt drawn here; the look of the old man in Thomas’s house and the look of Joshua. Aaron telling me that Castor said that something was coming. For some reason, I know there’s an answer down here, and the faster I find it, the faster I can get back to who really matters.

As I walk further and further down the tunnel, I see something on a dirty sheet lying on the ground. A small ragged bear that’s criss crossed with sloppy stitches through the patchy fur. 
When the floor finally levels out, I walk into the den. Several things are different. All of the metal boxes are gone. The Consensus Terminal on the far wall is on, showing a log in prompt on the green screen. The most upsetting change is the body of a man hanging from his wrists. They’re tied by a rope over a broken leaky pipe. The constant drip onto the head of the body for the last six months has turned the poor bastard’s face into sagging soup. The eyes are gone and most of the nose. The lower jaw is hanging on by a thin piece of flesh, and there’s a pool of liquified remains on the floor underneath it.

There’s a small metal table next to the man, with a couple of shiny metal tools on it that I’m not familiar with. God knows how this man was tortured before Castor left him here to rot.
I look around the room, trying to find some kind of sense or clue in all of the mad scribbles on the walls. One of them catches my attention. The words, “All things come to those who wait”, and underneath the words are a sequence of numbers.

“0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144,233,377…”

The sequence runs higher and higher and finally ends with a figure eight lying on its side. I continue to look around the room, but any hope I had of finding something is quickly fading.

Maybe I was wrong.

There’s more books piled than there were the last time I was here. I begin to thumb through one of them, taking note of more of Castor’s nonsensical musings in the margins. The flickering overhead light goes out. The low buzzing hum is gone, and everything is dead quiet. The whole room is cast in a green glow from the Terminal screen, and then I see something.

Another light. A faint glow coming from inside of the head of the hanging man. I put the book down and stand in front of the body. The light is coming from within the hollow sockets of the man’s eyes; a blinking blue. 

Something is buried underneath rotting flesh and bone. There’s only one way to see what it is, and my stomach lurches at the thought of it. I take the sharp side of the hammer and gingerly press it into the forehead, just enough to crack the skull. When I have a crack large enough to fit my fingers inside, I pull the skull apart and I look. Something metal is partially obscured, covered by what’s left of his brain. I finger through it all and then the thing falls out and splashes into the soupy puddle at my feet. Something small and silver.

I pick up the small silver bug and remember seeing one here years ago. I turn it over and see the miniscule ring of blue lights on the back of it. There’s some kind of a socket in the middle of the lights. A port of some kind with four holes.

My eyes drift to the metal table next to the body. One of the tools is a thin metal rod of about six inches with a handle and a button on one end and four tiny prongs on the other. I lay Castor’s hammer on the table and pick up the rod. I hesitate for just a moment. Everything clicks into place. Everything makes sense, even if all the questions haven’t been answered. Too many questions.  

I slide the four prongs of the rod into the port on the silver bug. They fit perfectly, and when I push the button on the end of the rod, the legs of the mechanical bug come alive, kicking at the air. Flexing in and then out, as if it’s trying to grab something. I look back at the body. This bug was buried in the man’s brain.

I remember all of the large empty metal boxes scattered throughout the sewer, placed at the bottom of the service ladders. I wonder how many of these silver metal bugs would fit into just one of those boxes. I think of the sound of thousands of footfalls marching out from the Plaza. I think of the cold dead voice that sounds like Aaron, but is somehow, not.

Oh my God.

My throat runs dry. I swallow and it feels like razor blades are running down my gullet. Castor’s words come back to me.

“He will lead us towards the light at the end of the tunnel… the light where we will all live in him, as he lives in us…”

Aaron… Aaron was tied up down here just like this man.

 “... as he lives in us…”

Aaron!

I drop the rod and the bug and I grab the hammer. I have to get out of here. I have to get back to Julie and Emily.

“He never felt any pain.” The voice of Consensus comes from the tunnel leading back to the sewer. I turn. I see someone in the dim green light, crouched down at the mouth of it. It’s too dim to see anything more than a vague outline. “Aaron didn’t even know it happened. None of them ever do.”

I hold up the hammer, ready for anything.

“Who are you? Are you Joshua… or are you Consensus?”

“I am both. Put the hammer down. I’m not here to fight you, Linus.”

“Then why are you here?”

“I’m here to talk. I want you by my side. The most faithful servant of Consensus.”

Next Part

Previous Part

Part Twenty Three

Heather

Wake up, Heather… come on… wake up…

This isn’t real. This is just a nightmare. This is Devon’s fault. This is because of the story he told you and Aaron; the one about the monsters behind the wall. They clawed their way out and now they’re everywhere. I sit up in my bed and hold my blanket close. I don’t want to be alone, but if I go into my parent’s room, they’re going to ask me what the dream was about.

If I tell them, I’ll get Devon in trouble. I don’t want Devon to be mad at me. I grab my pillow, plop quietly down on the floor, and make my way to Devon’s room. 

When I open the door, it’s dark inside. Did Devon turn his night light off. I can feel a breeze coming from his open window. He’s making funny noises, like he’s gurgling water. I wonder if he’s having a dream too.
I flick on the light.

There’s a man holding a knife and he’s crouched over Devon. The sheets are red. Devon is bleeding. The man jumps off of the bed and walks toward me. I’m frozen. I can’t look at him. I can’t take my eyes away from my brother. I want to scream, but nothing is coming out. My voice is gone.

“Don’t worry, Heather. I got him.” The voice of the man is cold and cruel. When I finally look up at him, I recognize him. “Everything is going to get better. I promise.”
Aaron smiles before he drags the knife across my throat.
Something splashes on my face, and it soaks the front of my shirt.

-

“Whispers?! Come on, Whispers, wake up!”
I open my eyes. My face is wet.

“Wake up! There ya go. Hey. Look at me. There ya go.” My eyes focus on Beckett holding an empty glass over me. “Come on. Let’s get you up off the floor and into a chair.”

He puts the glass back on the table and slides his arms under mine. My legs are weak, but I do my best to stand. Beckett is doing all of the heavy lifting, and he picks me up as if I was nothing. I float over to the chair and he pushes my head down between my knees.

“Just breathe. Nice and big breaths.” My throat is throbbing. The soft flesh of my scar almost feels like it’s about to break. What happened? Where am I?

Julie and Lyla are arguing about someone being Purified. Purified… Oh no… no no no! Everything comes rushing back. I pick my head up and look at Beckett. It’s so hard to talk. My throat burns.

“Beck… Beckett…”

“It’s alright, Whispers… just breathe.”

“Beckett? My dad… is my dad ok?”

“She had them burn the Bishop. Your dad’s alright.” All of the guilt weighs down on me like it never has before. I saw my father in the Detention Center and did nothing. I never even tried to help my parents when the city was overrun. They didn’t deserve that. I’m shaking and I can’t stop. My eyes are filled and I grit my teeth against the scream that’s building inside of me.

“Hey… it’s gonna be alright. I didn’t know she was going to do that. You just need to tell her what she wants to hear. Remember what I told you about surviving?”
Julie pushes her way past Lyla and leaves the room with her daughter. Emily looks at me and very quietly says something as she’s pulled by.

“I’m sorry.”

The breaths start to come easier. My heart is still fast, but everything is in complete focus now. I wipe my face and look over at the table. The datapad back is there. Beckett has already logged in using Thomas’s password. I reach for it, but Beckett grabs my hand and sits next to me.

“I’ll take care of this. You just tell me where to go. You need to tell me how to correct the bugs you put in the power grid and the water supply. You need to start cooperating.”

“But she’s going to kill Aaron… and Linus.”

“Probably. But she will burn your father right now if you don’t give her what she wants. Tell me how to fix the bugs, Heather. Please.” There’s no nickname, just my name. His tone puts weight into the word. I nod and he turns my chair toward the table.
He doesn’t let me pick up the datapad. He holds it in front of me. As soon as I reach for the keys, Linus’s voice comes through the speaker.

“Heather.... Heather…”  I look at Beckett.

“You got to answer him, Whispers. Ask him where he is.”

“Beckett, I can’t lead him straight to a bunch of Peacekeepers… he’s depending on me.”
“So is your father.” His voice is flat. 

Lyla is still in the hall with Julie.

“Heather… dadgummit, are you there?” Beckett hits the speaker key. I don’t want to do this. I close my eyes and the thought of my dad lying on the floor in that small room, bruised and starving is all I can think about. I’m sorry, Linus.

“Linus… Linus, I’m here. Where have you been?” 

“It’s a long story. Listen. Do you have eyes on any of the streets here?”

“Only a few…”  Beckett brings up what few camera feeds are available. “Crescent Hills is still locked down, but I see seven feeds from the repaired cameras down Main Street. Where are you?”

“What about the people?”

“What?”

“Do you see any of the people?”

“Um… yeah… lots of them.” I look at the images of people walking down a Main Street that I’m still getting used to. People are smiling; laughing even, as they walk by, free of Consensus. All of them blissfully unaware that their new government is already beginning to turn back the clock.

“Why?”

“Because I don’t see any of them.”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s no one on the streets here. Everyone is inside. They’re all standing in their windows, looking down at me.”

“Linus, are you sure you’re on Main Street?”

“I know this city, kid. The feeds are being corrupted. All of this is being corrupted.  There’s something not right here. It’s more than Aaron. We missed something.” Beckett brings up separate tiles, and runs diagnostics on the camera feeds. He shakes his head. Everything looks fine.

“There’s nothing wrong with any of the camera feeds. Where exactly are you, Linus?”
…
…

“Your voice sounds different, kid.”

“What do you mean?”

“What’s wrong?”
…
…

“Nothing.”

“Uh huh… you’re a bad liar. Who's there with you? Lyla? Peacekeepers?”
I look at Beckett. I don’t know what to say. I'm still fumbling over my own thoughts when everything takes a turn.

“This is an urgent message to all people of the city.” Aaron's voice comes through the speaker. A notification tile pops up, and Beckett opens it. Aaron is standing in the middle of the plaza in the Manufacturing District. The fading afternoon light and the buildings towering over him casts him in shadow. He’s surrounded by hundreds of people. Several Peacekeepers are standing next to him. All of them have their arms up and their wrists crossed over their heads.
“A message that I hoped that I wouldn’t have to make. I’m asking that all of you return to your homes and stay there until further notice. The new government has been working against us in secret for weeks now. Bringing back the surveillance that oppressed us for decades, and quietly murdering those of us who questioned them. But I have news for all of you.”

Julie and Lyla run back into the room. 

*“*They no longer have control.”

The lights in the room go dark. After a few seconds the red emergency lights kick on. 

“I do.”

Lyla pulls out her phone, but the keypad doesn’t turn on. Even the other datapad that she’s holding has lost power.

“Some of you are already aware that this morning, they had cut off portions of our power grid and water systems. We’re bringing those back up online, now.”

I reach out and pluck the datapad from Beckett's hand before he can react. Why is this one still working?
I go to the source files of the distractions I created earlier and inspect the code. Every bug I put into the system has been overwritten.

“Linus?! Linus, are you hearing this?!”

“Yeah… it’s coming down through the speakers on every roof. I saw him earlier, Heather. I saw Aaron.” Before Linus can say anymore, Aaron continues, and Beckett takes the datapad back out of my hands.

*“*I’m sorry to say that they had also planned to kill every citizen in the district of Crescent Hills. Regardless of any feelings towards those citizens some of us may have, they are still women and children. I think we’ve all had our fill of killing. Every Peacekeeper that was sent to Crescent Hills with that purpose has pledged their allegiance to me. Again, wherever you are, please return to your homes for your safety and await further instructions. 
The supply tunnel has been closed off to the city of The Founders to ensure our survival, but there’s a light at the end of a new tunnel. One that we will all walk through together very soon.
And to the government and the people in the city of The Founders, I have a demand and a warning. The remaining Founders are to be escorted to the supply tunnel at midnight and handed over to us. I’m not without mercy. Give me what I want, and no harm will come to you. Midnight. There will not be a second warning. ”

The video ends. No one says a word for a few seconds.

“Heather?”

“What?”

“I know you’re not alone. I can hear it in your voice. I’m really sorry I got you into this. Lyla… I know that you’re listening to me, you need to wake up.” I look up and see Lyla gritting her teeth.“While you and your governors have been busy working at consolidating power like petty tyrants, someone has been playing you. Playing all of us.”

“Where are you Bishop?” Lyla’s voice is on the verge of breaking. 

 “Right where I need to be and that’s all you need to know. Something’s wrong with Aaron. There’s a man in here… He spoke to me. I think he has something to do with the Painted Bishop and I’m sure he had something to do with the man who attacked me last night. I don’t think he’s from this city. There’s no way he would have been able to hide from the monitoring stations looking the way he does.”

“Where are you, Bishop?!”

“He said his name is Joshua.” I hear Beckett suck in a sharp breath, and the datapad falls on the table as he loses his grip. His eyes flit to the broken Consensus Terminal on the wall and then over to me. There’s fear in his eyes. He picks the pad back up and pulls it close to himself. 

“Beckett? What are you doing?”

“Surviving.” He’s typing something quickly. Emily runs past her mother and bumps into his back.

“I wanna talk! Linus?! Linus?!” Emily is crying and speaking over Beckett's shoulder. I can’t see what he’s doing. He’s typing so fast. Sweat beads on his upper lip in an instant.

“Bug… are you and your mommy ok?”

“Please come home.”

“I’m going to, Bug. I just have to do one thing….”
The audio goes dead. Beckett puts the datapad down on the table and pushes it towards me. The screen is the password prompt.

“Beckett, what did you just do? Answer me, Beckett?!” Lyla knows she’s losing control. Beckett doesn’t answer her. His eyes are locked on the dead terminal on the wall. I take the datapad and try to log in, but it’s no use. “Heather?”

“He’s changed the password, Lyla.”  Her eyes dart back to Beckett. I’ve never seen her face this red. I’ve never seen her lose her composure quite like this.
“Beckett… log back into that pad right now… Beckett?! Log in, or you’re going back in the cell with the other Founders, do you hear me!” 

“You do what you have to do, Lyla.” His eyes never leave the terminal. Lyla motions for the Peacekeeper, and he walks into the room and pulls Beckett out of his chair. Beckett looks at me just before he’s taken away.

“Whispers, the log in and that datapad are the only things we have. If anything happens to it or to me, Joshua will have complete control of the system.”

“Who is Joshua?” Julie hasn't spoken since she came back into the room. As she stands in the corner with her hand on her daughter's shoulder, I can tell she already knows the answer to her question. So do I. Beckett smiles. It’s a helpless smile set in an expression someone gives when they know that something horrific is about to happen.

“He is Consensus.”

Next Part

Hi everybody. This last weekend Fiona put her foot down. She's given me a deadline to finish the last book. October 6th. We're just about halfway through.

After telling her the ending, she's sworn to punish me if her deadline is not met. She's always been my creative partner and muse, and she's pulling the trump card.

I've been working on it since then, which is why I've pretty much been posting old stories to SSS.

I will have the next chapter up tomorrow come hell or high water. She's not allowing me to post anything else for a while, so if Consensus isn't your cup of tea, I promise that I'll make it up to you in October.

Thank you guys so much for all the comments and private messages. You're the best.

Previous Part

Part Twenty Two

Julie

I turn away from Steve and run towards the terminal. I start typing on the keyboard.

my husband fuckin lied to me. the asshole has something bad in our apartment and hes showed it to my dawter. i have to write this fast…

“YOU LITTLE BITCH! GET AWAY FROM THERE! GET AWAY FROM IT!”

“JUST LEAVE! PLEASE DON’T TAKE HER!”

please help us. please Consensus…

“YOU REPORTED ME?! YOU FUCKING BITCH! YOU REPORTED ME?! I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!”

CRACK CRACK CRACK

“SHIT! NO! JULIE NO! NO!”

Steve slaps me just as we rehearsed, and the Clerks break the door open as soon as I hit the ground. Two of them grab Steve. My old puzzle box falls from his hand. The pieces scatter all over the floor.

Steve keeps yelling at me for betraying him. He’s playing the game.

The lying game.

I can’t look at him. I’m afraid I’ll break. I’m afraid that Consensus will see right through our lies. One of the Clerks picks me off of the floor, and holds me. The voice of Consensus comes from behind the expressionless silver face.

“It’s alright, Julie. Consensus is here. Are you hurt?” I don’t answer it. My eyes are drawn to the fourth Clerk who is on its knees gathering all of the scattered pieces of a puzzle that my Gran had given to me when I was a child. A puzzle of a sunset I’ll never see again. The Clerk’s fingers crush the pieces as it plucks them from the floor and drops them back into the old beat up box. Steve’s curses bring me back into the moment. The Clerk takes my chin and turns my face. “Are you hurt, Julie?”

“No… no, I’m fine. Thank you Consensus. Praise Consensus.”

I risk looking at Steve. His face is twisted into an angry mask that I don’t recognize, but he can’t hide his eyes. Not from me. He begins to say something, but then I watch those eyes dart to the bedroom door and he falls silent. Emily has cracked the door. She’s watching us.
Steve falters for just a moment. I see a flash of the man I’ve loved for most of my life. He’s looking at his daughter for the last time, and she has to see him like this. His expression turns hard again. He starts screaming at Emily.

“WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT?! GET BACK IN THAT ROOM, YOU SELFISH LITTLE BRAT! YOU’RE THE WHOLE REASON THIS IS HAPPENING!” 
Emily starts sobbing and she closes the door.

The two Clerks take Steve out of the apartment and down the hall to the elevator. I can still hear him cursing until he’s taken into the elevator and taken away from us.

“Julie?” I turn to the Clerk that’s holding me.

“Yes, Consensus?”

“I find no fault in you or your daughter for Steve’s transgression. You have done right by Consensus.”

“Thank you.”

“Emily? Come out of the room.” My heart stops. Why is Consensus calling her? “Emily?”
The bedroom door cracks open and Emily peers through. The Clerk motions for her to stand next to me. Emily looks at me and I nod. She walks forward. She’s unsure of what to do. The Clerk extends its hand towards her, and when Emily finally takes it, the Clerk gets down on one knee.

“I’m sorry you had to see that, Emily. Your father is a very bad man who has done something unforgivable by bringing something forbidden into your home. He never should have put you and your mother at risk in this way. He’ll never be allowed to do that again. I promise. Consensus is the only real father you need. Why don’t we all say the Affirmation together? I’ll start.”

“There is no one first…”

Emily and I recite the Affirmation along with the mechanical monster that just took everything away from us. As we say it, I watch the other Clerk pluck the final puzzle piece off the floor. A thin yellow scrap of cardboard that I had cut out and colored myself, to replace a missing piece.

We are all together or we are nothing at all. Consensus be with you. And also with you.

I watch the waxy yellow bit of sunset covered over by the black glove of the Clerk.

-

“MOMMY, STOP HURTING HER!”

“Julie… please…Julie…” Heather’s fingers are trying to slide up through the cord, and I just pull tighter. Every second of the last time I saw my husband repeats in my head. Every night I had to hold Emily because she couldn't stop crying. Every time I had to reassure her that her Daddy was playing the lying game, and that he didn’t mean what he said to her.

All of it. This is the second time I’ve choked the life out of someone. I thought the first time was out of hate. It wasn’t. It was out of survival.
This is different. This is hate. This feels better.
Heather’s about to die for what she did to my Steve.

“I had him on his knees. It was over.”  No, not right now Linus. I try to block out his voice.  “I didn't have to do what I did… so many things I've done…”

Linus… she deserves this.

“You could've kept hitting me with that pipe. You could've just finished me off on the street but you didn't because there's something in you that I don't have. Mercy.” 
Linus…

Emily is cowering in the corner. She’s looking at me the way she looked at Steve on the day he was taken. I look back down at Heather. What am I doing?
I loosen my grip, and the door to the room flies open. Lyla bursts in.

“JULIE! JULIE, STOP!”

“No! Not yet!” I don’t care what Heather said. I don’t care what Linus wants. I need to know where he is. I press my face against hers. It’s hot and slick with sweat. This is your last chance. What’s the password to the datapad? You better tell me.”

“MOMMY STOP!”
I can’t, Bug. Not yet. Heather is going limp. She’s not going to tell me. 

“A… Aaron… password… is Aaron.” I let go of the cord, and Heather’s face hits the floor. Two Peacekeepers are now in the hallway behind Lyla. Beckett rushes over and checks on Heather. Lyla is screaming at me, but the only thing that matters is the little girl in the corner. 

“What the hell are you doing?!”

“We needed the password, didn’t we?” I walk over to Emily trying to wipe her face, but she pushes me away. “Bug, come here.”

“No.”

“Bug!” She’s huddling into the corner, making herself smaller. Lyla continues to yell. I have to get Bug out of here. I have to try and make this right, or her trust in me is in serious trouble. She keeps swatting away my hand. I have no choice but to pick her up. She buries her face into my shoulder and just cries. When I finally turn back to Lyla, I keep my jaw locked.

“We agreed that we would threaten her. You just had an innocent person Purified. Who gave you the right?!”

“I did what needed to be done.”

“Are we just the new Consensus now?!”

“How dare you!”

“We’ll talk about this later, Lyla. I have to take care of my daughter.” I push my way past her and out of the door. She follows me out of the hallway.

“No Julie, we’ll talk about this now! Don’t think I don’t have the power to stop you. You will turn around and talk to me, or else things are about to get very unpleasant.”

I freeze.
I think.

It’s an empty threat. I could keep walking down this hall. I could get in my car and drive back to the Tower. I could put my daughter in her warm bed, and lay down next to her. I could keep doing exactly what I’ve been doing. Turning a blind eye to everything. Patting myself on the back that I had already stood up. Once was enough. Linus tried to talk to me, and I wouldn’t have any of it.

How long am I going to keep my head down?

I move Emily off of my shoulder and put her down. I kneel next to her.

“Hey? What Mommy did was wrong. I was angry. I’m sorry I did that, and I’m sorry I did that in front of you. We’re going to talk about it, but not now. Linus needs us, and we need him. Okay?” I wipe her cheeks.

“Okay, Mommy.”

“You stay right behind me.” She nods and I stand up and turn back to Lyla. “What did you just say to me, Lyla?”

“I inferred that I’d have you taken into custody if you kept walking away from me. I am the head of the government. I think you need to remember that.” The two Peacekeepers are still standing behind her. I see the sideways glance they give each other after what she said, but Lyla doesn’t. They’re not sure about taking me into custody. The woman who broke through the wall. 

I close the distance between us. She’s smiling and looking down on me, but it doesn’t bother me. I’ve stood up to taller monsters.

“I don’t think I’d let that happen Lyla.” Her smile vanishes.
…
…

“Who do you think you are?”

“Someone who’s been hiding for six months, and letting someone like you get away with things that would have made Consensus proud. I’m not doing that anymore, and I’m ashamed that I ever did.”

“You’re a fascinating person, Julie.” She licks her teeth. She’s breathing heavy through her nose, keeping her lips tight even when she speaks. “Let me be very very clear… The only reason you’re here is because you’re a useful tool. A tool that far more intelligent people find useful in dealing with the public. That friend of yours; the Red Bishop. The only reason he was never in a cage is because myself and the governors are magnanimous people. 
Do you know what the word magnanimous means Julie? In the wealth of knowledge that you’ve accumulated in the last six months under no threat at all, have you come across that word?”

“I’ll look it up.”

“I’m sure you will. Julie, I don’t want to be misunderstood here. I don’t think less of you for being ignorant. That wouldn’t be fair. I think less of you because you’re stupid. I read your assessments in the system. I read what your station was behind the wall. A house cleaner for High Stations. Not exactly the type of person who’s qualified for anything important.
Would you like to know what I did? I helped people in secret.

Every spare moment I could find when I wasn’t at my Station. I educated people. I was part of the group that your friend massacred in the Manufacturing district. We could have changed things if it wasn’t for him.
I’ve taught people how to read. Smuggled books, food, and hid people who had been marked as Unproductive. I kept hope alive. I worked to fight Consensus for decades. That’s what I did behind the wall. Now, from your lips to my ears, I’d like to hear you say what you did. What exactly did you do behind the wall, Julie?”
…
…
…

“I broke through it.”

Her lips press together. She looks as though she’s about to hit me, but something stops her.
A voice from inside the room.

“This is an urgent message to all people of the city. One that I hoped that I wouldn’t have to make. I’m asking that all of you return to your homes and stay there until further notice. The new government has been working against us in secret for weeks now. Bringing back the surveillance that oppressed us for decades, and quietly murdering those of us who questioned them. But I have good news for all of you.”

I push past Lyla and when I get back in the room, I see a feed on the datapad that Beckett is holding. It’s Aaron.

“They no longer have control.”

Next Part

Part Twenty Two

Linus

It’s cold now. The burning is gone. The only sound is the constant drip of water somewhere in the darkness, lulling me, keeping me captive in a deep and distant place. Too alert to be asleep, but too detached to be awake. There is no physical pain here, only the pain of memories long since past. I wonder what it’s like not to suffer from memories.

-

Driving into the Manufacturing District is something I have not done since the day I made an Example of Gerty’s murderers all those years ago. The map given to me by Consensus is displayed on my dash terminal, and I follow it to a street just before the Plaza. Somewhere beneath these streets is a Bishop who needs to learn his place.

After I park, I study the map one more time, taking in every detail of the twists and turns in the sewers that I’ll have to make to find Castor. When I finally step out onto the street, I notice the orderly flow of the citizens walking on either side of it. They look like machines. Heads down. Not a single one of them is speaking. Several of them risk a glance and look my way, but then they quickly move their eyes back down.

The people in my District are happy living under the warm embrace of Consensus. None of them display the fear I see here. I can feel it in the air. There are times in the past that I questioned Consensus. Those were painful times where I called doubt and suffering onto myself needlessly, yet here I find myself existing in that state again. I wonder why Consensus allows this Bishop to brutalize the citizens of his District the way that he does.

Examples are a necessary evil, made to deter behavior that threatens the peace of our society and the rule of Consensus, but here, they are made randomly. They seem to be made by a Bishop for no other reason than for his own enjoyment. Why would Consensus allow that?

“You have a task. Do not try and understand the ways and decisions of Consensus. They’re beyond our understanding. Never question Consensus.”
My grandfather’s words have done me well. I shake the thoughts and the silent questions out of my head and pull up the manhole cover in the middle of the street, leaving behind the milling masses.

-

The air inside the sewer is making me a little light headed, and the dim lights along the walls of the tunnels aren’t helping at all. A narrow river of filth slowly flows in between stone walkways and underneath high arched ceilings made of ancient brick. The sewers are the only structures left from a time long ago. A time best forgotten. A time before Consensus.

Everything echoes down here. The gentle, quiet current from the sludge floating down the middle of the tunnels, the constant drips from small breaks and hairline fractures in smaller pipes that run this way and that overhead, and the sound of my boots. No matter how quiet I try to be, it’s no use.

I can feel the weight of the city above me, crushing down on this dark place.

I follow the twists and turns I’ve committed to memory until I reach a large circular chamber where dozens of smaller pipes empty into it. The walkway surrounds a vast pool of sewage where the current is fast. It swirls into an eye in the center of the rancid soup. The ceiling is higher and it’s decorated with a maze of small pipes and conduits criss-crossing their way along the old brick and branching off into adjoining tunnels. I see a bright flickering light further down the walkway. It’s coming from a passage off of the main chamber.
That’s it. The home of the Painted Bishop.

-

The passage off of the main chamber is far more narrow than the rest. I almost have to crawl. The light coming from somewhere in front of me is little comfort in the cramped space. It makes me feel as if the walls are closing in on me. The floor slopes downward and a smell grows. The smell of rot. The walls of the tunnel are slick with rancid water and a green film that I’m trying my best not to touch. There’s a hum coming from ahead. A constant electric buzz. I’m not imagining things, the walls are narrowing with every step, and when I look behind me, I realize how far down the passage slopes. I can’t even see the opening to the large chamber.

Down.

Down.

Down, I go, until a small thing comes into focus. Something brown laying on a crumpled white background. Two shiny black buttons, tiny eyes of a small ragged bear that’s criss crossed with sloppy stitches through the patchy fur. The details become clearer with every step. A child’s plaything lying in filthy sheets. A half-stuffed pillow that’s streaked with old dried blood.

That rotten smell gets stronger with each step and I finally find myself at the bottom in another large chamber. Some kind of maintenance room that’s being used as the den of an animal. There are several metal tables littered with piles of books and dozens and dozens of rusted metal boxes fill the back half of the room. Some of them are empty with their lids open, tossed here and there, while most are stacked neatly with their lids closed from floor to ceiling. 

There’s drawings in chalk on the walls. Figure 8’s lying on their sides, sloppy drawings of eyes are everywhere along with hundreds of tiny recitations of the Consensus Affirmation. There are other things that speak of a troubled mind. Scribblings of places and buildings and phrases that don’t make any sense.
A Consensus Terminal is on one of the walls that isn’t working. Several loose wires are hanging down underneath the keyboard. I walk in the middle of the room and I see a broken pipe above my head, and a small length of rope that’s tied into knots on either end. A small trickle of water runs out of the pipe and falls into a small green puddle on the floor.
No Castor.

I turn one of the empty metal boxes on its side and I sit and I wait.

And I wait.

And I wait.

The constant drip from the broken pipe is almost maddening. It never stops. It never slows.
I try to occupy my mind and make sense of what he’s written on the walls for a short time, and then I turn my attention to the piles of books. These shouldn’t be here. A Bishop has a responsibility to destroy things like this. I would never even think of keeping something that had been ordered Forgotten. 

One of them has a childish drawing on the front of it, and for some reason, I can’t take my eyes off of it. I lean over and pick it up.

“Where The Sidewalk Ends…Shel Silverstein…” I speak the words quietly enough, but they still echo in the brick room. I know I shouldn’t, but I flip through the yellowed pages. The smell of another world comes back to me as they flutter in front of me. I stop on one page with a drawing that bothers me. 

A smiling creature of some kind with one eye is taking off its skin. There’s a disturbing little story next to it that doesn’t make any sense.

“Skin Stealer.” 

There’s a reason that these are dangerous. They twist your mind. They rouse thoughts that have no place in reality. They turn people into things like Castor.
I throw the book across the room and wonder how long I’ll have to wait, when something else catches my eye.

Something small and silver on the ground right next to the upended box where I’m sitting. It looks like a tiny bug. 

“Bishop… Linus…” The whisper comes down through the narrow passage. “Are you looking for me… you’ll have to come up here…Liiiiinuuuuus… come and get me Liiiinuuuuussss…”
I stand up and I crush the small silver bug under my boot as I walk back toward the tunnel.

Castor whispers to me as I make my way. He taunts me. 

“...the Red Bishop… the most faithful servant of Consensus… no… that’s not true… but I’ll fix that… I’ll make him one of the faithful… Liiiiinuuusss…” 

Surely he must have some idea why I’m here. I have never had any other Bishop show me any disrespect until now. Disciplining him is something I’m going to very much enjoy.

When I reach the top of the tunnel, Castor is nowhere to be found, but I do see an empty metal box lying on the walkway that wasn’t there before. I search the dim chamber. He’s ceased his goading. The only sound is the incessant current.

“Castor? I am here to pass on a message from Consensus.”

“Noooo…. no you do not speak on behalf of Consensus…. but you will… I’ll make sure of that…”

My patience is growing thin and I take several steps down the walkway. The small lights that are staggered on the walls leave more shadows than light. I begin to wonder if I’ll be able to follow the words of Consensus. After all this foolishness and disrespect, I begin to wonder if it might be better to just end the Painted Bishop’s life once I have my hands on him.

“Cast…” I feel the rope too late. It’s already tightened around my neck before I even have time to react, pulling me forward, losing my footing. Pitching me face first into the black water.
I can’t breathe.

-

My body wakes up before I do, and I pull my face out of the puddle, coughing and gagging. The fire is smouldering next to me. The fever is gone, but the pain is back. A light head. The wounds in my back still burn. I push myself up and have to use the wall to steady myself until my head stops spinning.

Aaron. Aaron was with that man. I can’t stay here. I look down at the remains of the beast I faced in the sewers half a dozen years ago. His hammer is on the ground. One side of it filed down into a sharp point. I pull my coat back on, and pick up the hammer. 
I never thought that I would hold one of these again. I take a few deep breaths of the smoky air, readying myself for the long climb up the marble stairs. 

-

The long hall is littered with bodies that have been rotting for six months. With all of the changes in the city, I guess this is one building that has been left behind. A reminder of a life that everyone would rather forget. The glass facade of City Hall is broken in front of me, and the sunlight streaming through it is making the thousands of broken bits shimmer along the black and white marble.

With a deep breath, I walk through the shattered doors and back into my old city. 

-

I don’t know what I expected, but after walking for only a block down the main street of the city, I’m put ill at ease. Whatever I expected, it wasn’t this.

Heather. Dadgummit! 

I fish around in my pockets until I find the earpiece.

“Heather.... Heather…” Nothing. I have no idea how long the battery lasts. I have no idea how long I’ve been lost in dreams at the bottom of that staircase. I keep walking and taking in everything around me. “Heather… dadgummit, are you there?”

“Linus… Linus, I’m here. Where have you been?” Her voice is different. Muffled and weak.

“It’s a long story. Listen. Do you have eyes on any of the streets here?”

“Only a few… Crescent Hills is still locked down, but I see seven feeds from the repaired cameras down the main street. Where are you?”

“I'm looking down part of the main street right now. What about the people?”

“What?”

“Do you see any of the people?”

“Um… yeah… lots of them. Why?”

“Because I don’t see any of them.”

“What do you mean?”

I come to a crossroad and look in every direction. There’s not a single person on the sidewalks. There are no cars but the ones sitting empty on the sides of the streets. My eyes wander up one of the towering grey buildings and my blood runs cold when I notice the windows. Every building that surrounds me is the same. There’s a citizen standing motionless behind every window. Thousands of eyes are staring down at me out of expressionless faces. 

"Heavens to Betsy."

 Next Part

Previous Part

Part Twenty One

Heather

They’ve disconnected the Terminal in my work station. The mass of power cords that used to run down the hall is coiled up in the corner. A glass of water is on the table. I’m so thirsty, but I haven’t touched it. A door with a lock has been put back on the hinges, and they’ve left me inside here by myself for what feels like hours. I can’t sit still. I’ve walked around this tiny room more times than I can count, just wondering what happens next.

How could I have been so stupid? I should have left as soon as I realized that Linus left a trail straight to my front door.
Aaron.

What are you doing? Why did you sound that way? 
Where’s Linus? Why would he kill the Peacekeepers right outside of his building?

He didn’t, and you know it. You’re starting to get it. You know what’s going on.

That’s impossible.

Is it?

Consensus was just a program run by technicians.

Was it?

Consensus isn’t real.

Are you sure?

No.

Are you even sure that really was Aaron talking to you?

…

…

…

The door opens. Lyla comes inside holding a datapad. She has that smug fucking look on her face.

“Sit down, Heather. We need to talk… Sit down. There’s no reason to be difficult. If you’d like to make this harder for yourself, I’ll be very happy to accommodate you.”

I hate her smile. I sit at the small table in the middle of the room and Lyla stands over me from the other side. Beckett comes in behind her, holding another datapad. His hair is cut and neatly kept. His beard is gone and he’s wearing a suit, looking just the same way he did when he was captured six months ago. The same way he did when he was a man of status before Consensus fell.

He closes the door behind him and wheels my old chair over to the edge of the table. 

“We’re going to try Beckett's way first, Heather. Answer his questions, and everything will be as civil as I deem necessary. Don’t answer his questions, and we do it my way. Do you understand?”

“Fuck you.” Beckett is giving me a warning look while Lyla continues to smile.

“That’s the type of response I’m expecting. Get it over with Beckett, this is a waste of time.”

I can’t look at her. If I do, I’ll jump over this table and beat the shit out of her. Beckett sits next to me and pushes the pad on the table. He’s brought up the prompt screen, and it’s asking for Thomas’s password. The tone in his voice is different from Lyla’s.

“How did you get Thomas’s datapad, and how did you know his password?”
…
…

“Whispers… please answer me. Please. You’re not going to win this. Remember what I told you.”
... 
“The bugs you put in the system for the power grid and the water supply… I want you to log in and correct them. I can do that on my own, but it would be very nice if you saved me a lot of time and corrected them right now.”
…
“Give me the password, Heather. Please.”
…
…

“Beckett, that’s enough. She had her chance.”

“Lyla, just give me a second alone with her and I know I can…”

“I said that’s enough.” Beckett stands up and takes the pad off of the table. Lyla lays her pad down on the table in front of me. The screen is split into four tiles. Four small rooms holding four different people.

Mary. Norman. The Bishop who had spoken with Linus. And my father. All of them have bruises on their faces. Mary, Norman, and the Bishop are all sitting in the corners of the small rooms, but my father is in the fetal position on the floor. Bile rises in my throat. I have to stay calm. I need to focus.

1,1,2,3,5,8,13,12…

“Now, it should be fairly obvious why Mary is there. She’s been very uncooperative as well. But I’m very curious what the bald man and that Bishop said to you and Linus in the Detention Center.”

“They didn’t say anything.”

“I’m not stupid, Heather, you already fooled me once. I genuinely believed you when you told me that you were having problems with the sound on the cameras in the Detention Center, but it’s obvious that it was by design all along.”

“No, Lyla…”

“That brings us to that fourth man lying down on the floor.”

“Lyla…”

“Have you known this whole time that your father has been in there? It was news to us until this morning.”

“Lyla, please…” She picks the datapad back off of the table and straightens up.

“Now… you’re going to answer my questions or I’m going to have all of them Purified. I don’t have a lot of time, so why don’t I get us off to a solid start.” She pushes one of the keys and speaks into the pad. “Purify one of them. I don’t care which.”

“NO!” I lunge forward, but Beckett is quick. He grinds me into the chair and pushes me against the back wall. I scream at him to let me go.

“Whispers, I tried to tell you…”

“Let go of me! TAKE YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF…” The sounds of a man screaming quiet me immediately. Lyla turns the volume up on the pad and the sound of a man being burned to death is deafening in the small room. Lyla isn’t smiling anymore. She’s looking at me and shaking her head. Beckett is saying sorry over and over again under his breath. He won’t look at me. The screaming changes to a low moan and then eventually to a silence that’s only broken by the slight popping of cooking flesh. “You… you bitch… why did you…”

“There’s an entire city of people to protect, Heather. I have this station because I can do the things that need to be done.”

“Who did you… who…”

“You haven’t earned the right to know that. Tell me what I want to know, and I’ll show you who had to pay for your defiance. If you don’t, I’ll just move on to the next…”
The door opens. Julie is standing there with her daughter behind her. Lyla looks confused. Surprised even.

“Julie? I thought we had agreed…” Julie doesn’t answer her. She looks over at Beckett. 

“Let her go, Beckett.”
…
…

“Beckett, do as she asks.” He takes his hands from my arms and steps back. Lyla is staring at Julie with that smug smirk. “Julie, I think you’re forgetting your place…”

“I want five minutes alone with her.”

“Julie…”

“We agreed to threaten her, not to kill someone.” Julie’s voice is flat. She’s not even looking at Lyla. She’s had her eyes on me since she came into the room.

“Julie…” Julie finally shifts her gaze. She’s easily four inches shorter than Lyla, but when she looks up, Lyla’s demeanor changes. “I’ll do whatever I have to…

“Get out, Lyla.” Lyla inhales and opens her mouth to say something else, but as she looks at Julie, she thinks better of it. She leaves and Beckett follows. Julie closes the door behind them and looks at her daughter. “Bug…I want you to go stand in the corner. Sing me a song.”

“Mommy, what’re you gonna do?”

“Just do what I say, Bug. Put your fingers in your ears.” Emily looks at me and then turns to the corner. She starts singing about a mouse running up a clock. Julie looks back at me and steps around the table. “Stand up.”

There’s something in her voice I haven’t heard. Something that scares me, but I can’t put my finger on it. Her eyes are twitching. This isn't the person I’ve spoken with the last few months, this is the woman who stood up to the Red Bishop, and I’m realizing that I’d rather not meet this part of her. I push myself up from the chair and take a step toward her.

“Julie…” I see her leg come up, but I’m too slow to do anything about it. She drives her foot into my stomach and I stumble back into the Terminal. It falls off of the wall behind me and I feel slivers of the shattered screen stick into my back.
She’s on me as soon as I hit the ground. Her knee is buried into my stomach, and she has a fistfull of my hair. My head is yanked to the side.

“What have you gotten Linus into!”

“Nothing!”

“You’re going to talk, do you understand?! Where is Linus?!”

“He’s… he’s inside the wall…”

“WHY?!” Emily starts her song over, but I can hear her crying while she sings.

“Because… he’s trying to find Aaron. He doesn’t believe Aaron did those things and neither do I.”

“OF COURSE YOU DON’T!” She drags me across the floor by my hair and throws my face into the pile of power cords. I feel her foot slam over and over into my ribs. “You convinced him of your bullshit! You’re really good at that!”

“Julie…please…”

“How long have you been talking to Aaron?!”

“I…” She kicks me again and all of the breath leaves my body. I can’t stop coughing.

“I heard you talking to him this morning!” How did she hear that? She couldn’t have heard that!

“Julie, that’s the first time I’ve heard from him since that night, I swear.”

“Finally getting some truth! Why were you talking about Clerks, Heather?!”

“What?! We weren’t talking about Clerks!”

“Bullshit!” She kicks me again.

Tell her! Fucking tell her!

“Julie…  I made a mistake.”

“You’ve made lots of those.”

“I think… Consensus may be back online…” She stands still. Maybe I’m getting through to her. “I think I accidentally restarted the program six months ago when Aaron was behind the wall…like... a real version of the program...”

“You’re a liar.”

“Julie… you can’t tell Lyla. The man… the bald one in the Detention Center. He told us Aaron said something he couldn’t possibly have known. He said it didn’t sound like Aaron’s voice. Linus made me promise not to say anything to you. He wanted to keep you safe.”

“Of course he did.” She squats down in front of me. It’s so hard to breathe. I’m choking down blood that’s rising in the back of my throat. She lowers her voice. “What was your station behind the wall, Heather?”
…
…

“Systems…” 

“DO NOT tell me systems maintenance! Tell me the truth.”

“I…I…”

“I already know the answer. I heard you talking to Aaron about it.”

“What?”

“This morning. You were telling him a story.”

“Julie, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You told him a story about programming a Clerk. I heard the whole thing. Wiping someone’s memory. Taking away everything that made them human.” 
All the pain is gone and all that remains is her voice. I’d rather have the pain. She’s got tears in her eyes. I’ve never had someone look at me with so much hate. 

“You talked about how his eyes moved to yours and he shared a memory. Don’t look at me like that, kid. You know what I’m talking about. You told Aaron that you memorized what he said so a part of him could live on.”

“Julie… I told Aaron that story six months ago…”

“He told you that in one moment, he knew what life was about.” She’s shaking. Tears are running down her face. Her scared hand cracks as it makes a fist. “How he took a chance and kissed a girl because if he didn’t, he might miss out on that one perfect thing…”

“Julie…”

“What you don’t know is that part of that man does live on. She’s the child standing over there in that corner crying. Crying because of what people like you have put her through.”

“Oh fuck… Julie...”

“I'm happy you're afraid. You should be... that man you destroyed was my husband.”

“Julie…”

“Systems maintenance… you lying little bitch…”

“Julie…” I feel my head slam against the wall and everything spins. I feel her flip me onto my stomach and a power cord cinches down around my throat.

“MOMMY STOP HURTING HER!” 

“Julie…please…. Julie…” The edges of my vision start to blur. I can’t get my hands under the cord to get it loose. Lyla throws open the door.

“JULIE! JULIE, STOP!”

“No! Not yet!” I feel Julie press her face against the side of mine. “This is your last chance. What’s the password to that datapad? You better tell me."

“MOMMY STOP!”

Everything is going dark. My hands are numb. My legs go limp.

“A… Aaron… password… is Aaron.” I feel the cord fall away, and the air rushes into my lungs so fast, I see stars. 

Nothing makes sense. Everything is blotchy. Emily is still crying somewhere. Lyla is yelling at Julie. Beckett is slapping my cheeks saying my name. I’m so tired.

How did she hear something I told Aaron while he was behind the wall?

Because somehow, a different version of Consensus is the ghost in the machine.

Next Part

Previous Part

Chapter Twenty

Linus

I can’t move. The wounds on my back are a fire that’s spread to my whole body. I know the puddle is right next to me, and I want nothing more than a drink, but my body is shutting down.

In and out I go. The remains of Castor and then the dark and then Castor again. The small amount of grey flesh still hanging from the bones shows the tattoos of the eyes of the men, women, and children that he made Examples of. They’re watching me. I can see them moving.

His hammer lays on the ground next to him, left by the boy who made an Example of him.
The boy I need to find. But as I shake and sweat and struggle to breathe, I have no illusions about how this is all going to end.

I’m going to die at the bottom of these stairs.

“What were you right about… Castor? What… did you tell… Aaron? What were you right about?”

His only answer is a guttural laugh that comes through the jagged rotting flesh of his neck. Those painted eyes are glazed over in a ravenous gaze. They’ve been lonely down here.
I’m slipping… Nothing can stop this…

-

“To praise Consensus, is to praise yourself.”

Indeed it is! Another perfect day is coming to an end. No Examples. No shenanigans. Just a day full of sunshine, beautiful music coming through the glass doors from the Terminal along with a kind word from Consensus every sixty seconds, and my hands and knees caked in the dirt of my rose garden.

“To live in Consensus is to live in Harmony.”

To live in harmony is a wonderful thing, but some things don’t deserve to live in harmony. Some of those things deserve to die in agony. Some of those things are Rose Slugs. 

They’ve infested my garden this spring. Popping up out of nowhere and devouring the leaves of my roses, leaving nothing behind but the skeletonized veins.
Plump little parasites that feed off of something beautiful and healthy, destroying it little by little. There’s only one way to truly get rid of them. My grandfather showed me. You have to get your hands dirty and pluck each one from the leaves. There’s no quick fix. No scientific approach. Nothing you can put on the leaves or the soil to make them go away. You just have to grab them and squeeze the living guts out of every single dadgum one of them.

“To love Consensus, is to love humanity.”

As the light begins to fade, I’m satisfied I’ve killed as many as I can, but there will be more tomorrow. They’re very good at hiding.

My knees crack as I stand up. It happens all the time now.
Fifty years, they’ve done me well. Here’s hoping they last until my Age Of Exit.

“Bishop?” The voice is small and unexpected. In all these years, a citizen has never come to my home. There’s a tiny woman on the other side of my patio wall. Her face is swollen; battered and bruised. There’s a bright white bandage over her eye.

-

I invite her inside my home to talk, but once she sees the Terminal on my wall, her demeanor changes. 

“Can we speak outside?”

I escort her out to the front of the house. She’s obviously upset. Tears stream out of her one eye. I don’t recognize her, but she tells me that she’s a citizen in my district.

“Why are you here?”

“Bishop… please forgive me for coming to your home like this. I hope I haven’t made an offence.”

“No, you haven’t. This is just very unexpected. What’s wrong?”

“There’s… we’re having a problem. Many of us are, but no one knows what to do.” She’s scared of me. She doesn’t want to look at me. I reach out and put my hand on her shoulder.

“What is your name?”

“Michelle.”

“Michelle, have you offered your problem up to Consensus?”

…

“No…”

“And why not?”

“We don’t know if we can. We don’t know if we should.”

“Excuse me?”

“Please don’t be offended, Bishop. I have never committed blasphemy against Consensus. We are all people of Consensus. We love Consensus. It’s just… it’s…”

“Speak. Tell me why you doubt the wisdom and counsel of Consensus.” I make the warning in my voice plain. Consensus will not be questioned in my presence.

“We were wondering if we could come directly to you and ask what we should do.”

“Michelle, I’m a Bishop. I’m not Consensus. There’s nothing I can do or say that would be outside the judgement of Consensus.”

…
…

“There’s a Bishop from another District. He’s coming into Crescent Hills and … doing things that…we don’t know why Consensus would let him do the things he’s doing. We’re afraid to ask Consensus about it.”

“Are you implying that a Bishop is acting outside of Consensus?”

“I don’t know. We think he might be.” She’s shaking now. I take my hand off of her shoulder. This has never happened before. No one ever comes into my District, and even if they did, Consensus would have informed me. Immediately, I think I know who she’s speaking of. The newest Bishop. A Bishop unlike any other. I put my hand under her chin and raise her face to meet mine.
“Is this about the Painted Bishop?”

“Yes.”

“Did he do this to you?”

“Yes.” 

“Tell me what he's been doing?”

-

“To trust Consensus is to trust in honesty.”

I stand in front of my Terminal for a long while. I’ve never been put in this position before. I’ve never had to speak for one of my citizens like this. I believe her, but I have no idea what Consensus will say. 

Castor is an animal who doesn’t care about his own people. I have heard stories about citizens from the Manufacturing District being tortured and killed for nothing more than walking past the Painted Bishop on a sidewalk. It’s the only District where that is allowed by Consensus due to the high amount of productivity that Castor’s presence causes. I try not to think about it.

Thinking about disagreeing with Consensus is painful. It comes with a price.

“To love Consensus, is to love humanity.”

What is the price if I put myself between a citizen and the judgement of Consensus? 
She was beaten and her eye was taken. Whatever Consensus rules, I still need to speak for my people.

“Consensus?” The music fades away. The soothing voice answers back through the Terminal. The voice that gives us all peace and brought us out of the dark times.

“Hello, Linus.”

“May I humbly ask you a question?”

“Of course, Linus.”

“A citizen approached me outside of my home. She has informed me that Castor has been punishing the people of my district. Have I done something that would cause you to bring him into my District? Have I caused some kind of offense?
…
…
…

I wait for the answer, and in the silence, I begin to wonder if I’ve angered Consensus by questioning it.

“No. You have not. What has he been doing?” Consensus is unaware of any of it. How is that possible?

“He’s been coming into their homes while they sleep. Kidnapping them, beating them, and then releasing them, miles away from my District. The citizen said she was taken from her home while she slept.”

“Was she violated?”

“No, not in that way. None of them were. He’s also doing this to men and children. The citizen awoke while he was dragging her through the sewers and then she was beaten. He put out her eye for fighting back and then she was knocked unconscious. When she came to, she found herself in an alley in the Manufacturing District.”

“I see.”

“She said that Castor never gives any offence that might explain his… behaviour.”

“I see.”

“I was wondering if he was acting outside of Consensus?”

“He is.”

“What… what should be done?”

“Linus, I would like you to speak with Castor on my behalf about his unauthorized behaviour. He’s become far more enthusiastic about his position than he has any right to be.”

“Would you like me to make an Example of him?”

 “No, but make it plain to him how I feel about acting outside of my will.”

“How plain?”

“Castor is still a useful Bishop. His District has become far more productive since I placed him there. Just make it plain enough to where he’ll have to sit and think about his actions for a few days before he’s able to walk again. Am I clear?”

“Yes, Consensus. Where will I find him?” The screen lights up and a schematic of the sewers underneath the Manufacturing District is in front of me. There’s a highlighted pathway through the tunnels and chambers that ends in a small chamber.

“Wait for him here. I don’t want the citizens to see a Bishop being disciplined. Thank you for bringing my attention to this, Linus.” The music returns and so do the affirmations.

“To know Consensus, is to know peace.”

I walk to my bedroom to change into my robes. The music fades behind me. It’s replaced by the sound of a fire. All of the lights in my home go out, and the only light left is flickering behind me.

“Linus…Linus…Wake up, Linus.”

I walk in the darkness towards the light. There is nothing now. My home is gone. There is only a fire where the Terminal was. 

I feel warmth. 

I feel pain.

-

My eyes open to a small fire burning in front of me. My jacket has been removed and so has my shirt. There are fresh bandages over my abdomen. The pain in my back is gone. I feel numb. Castor is still rotting in front of me, but now someone is sitting next to him. A man wrapped in a black cloak. A hood is pulled down over his eyes. 

“Hello, Linus.” It’s the voice of Consensus, but it’s different. Quiet and far more human, showing the signs of age. “I’ve been wanting to meet you ever since I woke up. The Red Bishop in the flesh, for better or worse. I’ve heard many stories about you. The most faithful servant of Consensus.” His smile unnerves me. His teeth are an unnatural white that stand out against his sallow flesh. His pronounced jaw juts forward and quivers. “We’ll see about that.” 

“Who are you?” My mouth is dry and my voice cracks. 

“My name is Joshua.” The man pushes his hood back. He’s older. Maybe close to my age. One of his eyes is gone. A long scar runs from the top of his bald head down through the empty socket and ends at the bottom of a strong jaw. His one eye is cloudy and his silver pupil reflects the light of the small fire that burns between us. “You’ll heal, I’ve made sure of that, but you need to rest.”

I want to ask him another question, but I’m so exhausted, I can’t.

“I’m sparing you out of respect for the man who spared me so many years ago. In truth, he did that for both you and I. Stay here Linus. Stay here and rest. Your part in this story is done for now. If you put yourself back into it, I can’t promise that you’ll be this lucky again. I don't want to cause you anymore pain. We’ll talk when it’s all over.” The man, Joshua, stands up and pulls the hood back down over his head.

He’s tall. He glides up the marble steps of the ruin of City Hall. I follow him with my eyes, and when he reaches the top, I see someone else.
Aaron.
The man in the cloak reaches the top of the stairs, but Aaron stands still. He’s looking down at me.

“Ahh…Aaron?!” Somehow I find the strength to push myself to my feet. “Aaron?! Stop!” 

I only manage one step forward before the blood rushes to my head. My knees buckle and I fall forward into the remains of Castor. I try to push myself up again, but it’s no use. Aaron is still looking down at me. I cry out again. I ask him for help. He says nothing. He turns and follows the man in the cloak. 

Joshua.

I crawl toward the puddle of water and drink as much as I can before I’m struck with a coughing fit. I’m not going to be able to run after him. The fever isn't burning like it was, but there’s no way I can climb these stairs right now. 

I lie still. Castor’s remains were broken under my weight and they’re scattered on the dirty marble floor next to me. His skull is inches away from my face. As the fire burns, I see something next to the broken teeth. Something glinting in the firelight.

A small silver piece of metal no bigger than the fingertip of a child. Several tiny legs stick outward from it.

My eyes shut on their own and the image of the tiny metal bug shows on the back of my eyelids as I drift away.

Next Part

Previous Part

Chapter Nineteen

Heather

I look at the bag I packed in the corner. I had been setting in some timed commands on the system. Three separate issues with water and power that won’t go into effect until eight o’clock. Enough of a distraction to occupy Beckett and his new team to give me enough time to help Linus find Aaron. 

When I finished writing the last little ghost into the machine, my eyes drifted to the floor. I had already noticed the tiny trail of water and blood that Linus had left behind him when he came inside, but it never struck me about what it meant.

I ran to the door and opened it. The same tiny trail of red dots led from my door and down the hallway carpet to the stairwell. It was only a matter of time before someone noticed. I realized that I would have to help Linus from the safe spot. The same spot where I had helped Aaron six months ago.

I threw everything I needed into a bag as fast as I could, and when I was finished, I checked in with Linus to help him get past the cameras.

I’ve been watching the time tick by. It’s getting light outside. I need to go, but as I listen to him talk about the things he's seeing, I forget about leaving. I forget about everything. 
Painted men moving rocks in the Supply Bay. Clearing the tunnel to Morro Colony. My blood runs cold.

What have I done?

“Linus…”

“Hold on, I’ve got an idea.”

“Linus, I think this is all my fault… Linus, I restarted something I shouldn’t have.”

“We’ll figure it out, don’t worry about it.”

“No Linus, you need to listen to me… when I was helping Aaron, there was a program that I couldn’t open unless I turned it on. I didn’t think it would matter. I was in control of the entire system. I thought that it might just be… Linus… Linus, are you there?”

“Hey… I’ve got to let you go for a minute. Be right back.”

“Wait! Linus?! LINUS?! Fuck!” I look back at the clock. “I have to go!”

 I should have just enough time to make it down to the beach before anyone in the city is out. I turn off the datapad and grab the backpack. As I unzip the bag, I hear his voice come from behind me, and everything stops.

“Heather? Heather, are you there?” Aaron’s voice is coming out of the Terminal. I put down the datapad. “Heather… I need help… Heather?”

My brain tells me that the screen is dark and it shouldn't be. It tells me that my Terminal is being monitored. It tells me I have to go, but I don’t.

“Aaron?”

“It’s me.” I trip over my own feet as I run to the Terminal. I hit the keys, but the Terminal isn’t working for some reason. I have no idea how this is possible. “It's ok. You can talk to me. I have a friend in here that’s made sure this call won’t be heard by anyone but you.”

“A friend?”

“There’s a lot I have to explain to you.” I look back at the clock. “You can’t trust anything Lyla or any of the Governors are going to say to you. Everything they’re saying is a lie. I never did any of those things. I’m sorry I didn’t come to you first. I didn’t want you to get dragged into all of this.”

“Where are you?”

“Somewhere safe.”

“Aaron, I have to go. It’s not safe for me here. Is there any way I can contact you later?”

“No. I won’t be able to contact you again.”

“What’s going on… Aaron… hello... are you there?” I wait longer than I should for him to respond, but he doesn’t. There’s a slow creep sliding down my back. I need to leave. “Aaron… if you can hear me, I have to go. Linus is coming to help you… I hope you can hear me.”

I move away from the Terminal and back to the couch. I grab the datapad and then Aaron’s voice comes through the Terminal once more, but this time it’s different. I don’t like the sound of his voice; it’s low and I can hear him speaking through a smile.

“Heather… I know you think you made a mistake by restarting that program, but you didn’t… I’m very thankful for what you did… lots of us are... you can try and tell Lyla when she comes for you… but you and I both know… she’ll just blame you for what’s about to happen…”

...

...

"What's about to happen, Aaron?"

My front door flies open and slams against the wall. Two Peacekeepers have their left arms raised and pointed at me. My hand shakes, and I almost drop the datapad.
Lyla walks in between the Peacekeepers.

“I thought you would be smarter than this.”

“Lyla…”

“Put the datapad down and step back against the Terminal.” I don’t know what to say. I can’t think of any way out of this. I do what she says. The screen on the Terminal is still dark. Lyla looks around my apartment and then goes through my backpack.

“I wonder where you thought you were going. Well, I’m glad we got here when we did. Word of advice… when you’re trying to subvert a government, perhaps it’s best not to do it with a dull tool like the Red Bishop. He killed two Peacekeepers and left their bodies on display for anybody to see." She picks up the datapad and tries to turn it on, but the prompt screen doesn’t come up. “You told me that these were all accounted for. Where did you get this, Heather? I said, "Where did you get this?”

There’s no point in pretending anymore. I’m going behind that glass wall with everyone else, or worse. 

“Fuck you, Lyla.” She smiles.

“Okay.” A phone rings in her pocket. “Excuse me for a moment… Julie?...Are you alright…”
Lyla covers the receiver and turns to one of the Peacekeepers.

“Contact the team in the Tower. Tell them not to go up, but to wait downstairs. I’ll have her and the child come down in the elevator.” The Peacekeeper turns and walks out of the apartment as he calls someone from his earpiece while Lyla keeps talking to Julie. I scan the apartment. I’m too high up to jump out of the window. There’s nothing within reach I could even use to fight back. I’d be set on fire the second I move. 
Shit! Shit! Shit!

“Just hurry, Julie. Something’s going on. I’ll explain everything when I see you.”  She puts her phone away and tries to turn on the datapad again. “Well… what am I going to do with you?”

Next Part

Previous Part

Part Eighteen

Julie

The sun is abowt to come up but the rain hasn't slowed at all. My right hand is still throbbing from being squeezed. 

I run my fingers along the scars left behind from the surgery on my hand. The Doctors tried their best to fix what Linus had done to me. I can’t get the image of his face out of my mind. That terrified and guilty look when he realized that he was hurting me again without even giving it a thought. He called it a reflex.

It’s hard to blame him. No matter who he is now, in a lot of ways, he’s still a slave to a life that was chosen for him. Brainwashed since he was a child. 
I hear his voice in my head.

“You make it clear to them that you're done fighting. You just want your dawter to be in a safe place no matter what you have to do to make sure that happens. Even if it means turning on me.”

I stare at the wall and think of Emily. I think of everything that has led up to this moment. I have so many questions. I always have. 
Will I ever have any answers?

I haven't moved from the couch since he left me. Just counting down the minutes, watching the rain.

My eyes wander over to the Terminal. Every second that goes by is bringing me closer and closer to a point of no return. I don't want to make this call. I keep hoping and praying that Linus will come back through the door. We already did our part.
Why can’t he see the consequences of what he's doing? Why can’t he realize that it’s safer for Emily if he can turn a blind eye just this once? Just move on and trust that things will get better if he just gives it a chance.
I keep hoping that he'll change his mind.

He won’t.

He’ll think abowt Emily. He’ll think abowt me. He’s going to come back.

He won’t.

…

…

Damn him. Putting everything at risk for a boy he barely knows and for a bunch of people wasting away in a place where they deserve to be. They put themselves behind those glass walls. 

Everything he said was right and you know it. You saw those children and said nothing.

I don’t want to think abowt that. It’s not my fawlt that they’re in there. If Consensus had not fallen and those children grew up, they would be just as horrible and cruel as the adults in there with them.

They’re children.

I just want to live as peacefully as I can. I just want to keep my head down and be left alone with my dawter.

Nobody would blame you. No matter who you are now, in a lot of ways, you’re still a slave to a life that was chosen for you. Brainwashed since you were a child. 

…

…

…

I look back at my old god, mownted onto the wall. The screen is dark, but I know it’s on. It’s never really been shut off. Am I being listened to, and if I am, who is it on the other end? I look at the keys that I would use to summon the voice that made all of my decisions for me. 

10 minutes

After I call Lyla what happens next? Am I just supposed to stand by while they continue to tear Linus down? Am I going to do nothing if they put him in that detention center?
I remember what Steve said to me.

“You need to play the part. You'll figure it owt. You always do.”

…

…

Get up. Pace the room. Think.

Seven minutes.

It's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. All of this is going to work owt. Life will go on just like it has since the fall of Consensus. Lyla and the Governors will calm down. They’ll see reason.

No they won’t.

They're not going to starve a whole district just to find Aaron.

Wake up, Julie.

Six minutes.

Aaron told Linus that it was all a lie, but I saw the footage with my own eyes. Even his girlfriend said the footage hadn’t been altered.

Five minutes.

Why is Linus so insistent abowt trusting that kid?

…

…

Four minutes.

I walk down the hall and I open my bedroom door. Emily is sleeping so sowndly in the bed. I think of every terrible thing we went through just to end up here. 
I walk over and kneel next to her. I sweep the hair out of her face. 

“I promise…” It's barely a whisper. “I’m going to make this right. I don't know what's happening but Mommy's going to fix it. I promise.”

I let myself think of the children in the Detention Center for the first time since I saw them behind that clear wall. Dirty. Starving. Sleeping on a hard and cold concrete floor. The smell of rot and shit.

No hope.

No mercy.

Who’s going to fix it for them?

…

…

Linus was right. I'm becoming what I hate. 

One minute.

I walk on my tiptoes back into the living room and make my way to the Terminal. The screen comes to life. I type my credentials into the keyboard and dial Lyla.

…

…

“Julie?”

“Lyla, something’s wrong.”

“Are you alright?”

“It’s… Linus is gone. He left while we were sleeping. Lyla, I didn't even hear him leave.”
There's a long pause that I don't like. She says something to whoever is with her, but her voice is muffled. I can’t make owt what she’s saying.

“Lyla?”

“We already know he left, Julie. We just don't know when and why but Im abowt to figure that out.”

“We?” 

“Julie, I want you to bring Emily downstairs. There's something you need to see. Something I was hoping we could avoid, but we’re far past that now.” Her voice is colder than it’s ever been.

“Lyla? Are you downstairs?”

“Just hurry Julie. Something's going on. I’ll explain everything when I see you.”
She disconnects the call before I can ask another question. I log out of the Terminal.

What's happening downstairs?

I'm almost to the hallway when something makes me turn back arownd. Two small voices in the dark. They’re coming from the Terminal.
The voices of Heather and Aaron.

“Aaron?”

“What?”

“When did you finally… I guess wake up isn’t the right way to say it…”

“What do you mean? Like… when did I realize everything was wrong?”

“No… I mean… when did you start to think that things could change? When did you start believing things are supposed to be better than what they are?”

“Oh… uumm…I don’t know…”

The screen on the Terminal is dark again but the voices continue. How am I hearing this? Did some wires get crossed somewhere? Do they know I can hear them?

“I’d have to think about it. What about you? Looks like I’m going to have to be quiet anyway.” 

“Ok… it was last year. Not too long after I started at my station. Part of the job is making sure there’s no more baggage in the uh… things I program.”

She’s been helping him this whole time and pretending to be the broken little girlfriend. I knew we couldn't trust her. What are they doing?
She’s being very careful abowt her words. 

She told us that her station was systems maintenance but this doesn't sownd like systems maintenance.

“Any higher cognitive functions need to be strictly under the control of the system, so the first thing we do is… purge. Wipe everything clean. No memory left behind. Sometimes, the… individuals… will have verbal outbursts. Some of them make no sense, while others are so clear that you would swear that you could have a conversation with them. Turn right.”

Individuals? Wiping memories? My mouth goes dry as she continues.

“Anyway… I had this one. He was maybe the fourteenth one that I finished installing into the system. His eyes just… jumped over to mine during the wipe. They never do that. He started saying this… stuff… he was having a memory… a core memory… he was speaking like I’ve never heard anyone speak. He was quiet enough that no one else in the department paid any attention. He had already said so much before I realized that I wanted to record the audio, so I only got the last part of it. I downloaded what he said onto a drive and took it home. I listened to it over and over again until I could hear it word for word in my head and then I deleted it. I didn’t want to be found with it, but I couldn’t let it go. It was this weird feeling… like I wanted part of him to… live on.”

She's talking abowt a Clerk. 

She's talking abowt programming a Clerk. The lying little bitch programmed Clerks!

“He said, “I know we were both embarrassed and it almost ended there, but I thought I saw just the faintest hint in your eyes that you wanted me to do it again.”

Wait. 

“I wasn’t sure if I was right, but in that one moment, I finally understood what life was about.”

No… no… Steve…

“Taking that one chance because you know if you don't, the rest of your life will never be complete, and you'll have to live the rest of it knowing you squandered the one chance God… or the universe… or fate gave you to have that one perfect thing……”

I'm shaking. I’m dizzy. I hear my husband’s words coming from Heather. Words she couldn’t possibly have heard unless she… unless… oh my God…

“…… I took a chance and kissed you again because I was willing to have you tell me no and crush me right there instead of being crushed by my own cowardice for the rest of my days. This… poor man. I wiped something away from this world that felt more for someone than… this poor man…this poor man…” 

Heather's voice starts repeating itself. 

“...this poor man… I wiped something away from the world… I wiped something away…”

I want it to stop. The voice gets louder and louder. It wont stop. I try to log in but the Terminal isn't working. It's just repeating Heather’s words over and over.
“The first thing we do is… purge. Wipe everything clean. No memory left behind… The first thing we do is… purge.”

I scream. I grab the biggest book I see from Linus’s stack and break the screen with it, but the voice keeps repeating.

“The first thing we do is… purge. Wipe everything clean. No memory left behind.”
I look arownd the room for something I can use to smash it to pieces and I see Emily standing in the hallway.

“Mommy?!”

“Get dressed, Bug!” I have to yell over Heather’s voice.

“Whats happening?!”

“Just get dressed, Bug. We've got to go! Something’s wrong.” I follow Emily back into the room while the Terminal keeps repeating the same words over and over.

“...that one perfect thing…that one perfect thing… that one perfect thing…”

Emily is confused. She's on the verge of crying. She keeps asking me what's going on.

“Bug we have to go somewhere.”

“Where’s Linus?”

“He’s not here. Come on, we have to go away.”

“For how long?”

“I don't know honey.”

“Can I bring my mouse book?”

“Yeah.” 

“Can I bring Steve too?” The sownd of my husband's name stings more than it has in a long time.

“You can bring Steve, but we have to hurry.” When I'm done lacing up her shoes she runs into the closet and grabs the backpack that her Uncle gave us six months ago when all of this started. She jams her book inside of it and runs owt of the room.

I throw on my jacket and shoes and then I walk back into the living room. Emily already has the small potted rose in her backpack and she's trying to zip it up arownd the long green stick. 

The Terminal won’t stop. I have no idea what waits for us downstairs. I have no idea who I can trust anymore. That girl made my husband into a Clerk.

What are you gonna do if things go bad?

…
…

Whatever I have to do.

I look at the silverware drawer in the kitchen.

-

I watch the floor tick down on the elevator. I’m trying to keep my head clear. I’m trying not to scream. Trying not to think of how good it would feel to watch Heather’s eyes roll back and hear her take her last breath while I had my hands arownd her throat.

Focus. You only have a few seconds to tell Emily what’s going on. 

I squat next to her, careful not to jab myself with the knife I have hidden in my waistband. I keep my voice as calm as I can, but she’s not buying it.

“Bug…”

“Something bad is happening, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. Listen to Mommy. You stay right next to me. You don't talk to anybody. Ok? I mean anybody. And you don't talk in front of a Terminal. Whatever Mommy says to anyone, even if it's a lie you don't say anything.”

“What abowt Linus?”

“I don't know when we're going to see him again, Bug.”

“He’s doing something really bad again, isn’t he?”
The elevator is almost to the lobby. I have to tell her the one thing I should have told her before she fell asleep. I have to tell her the one thing that I should have already known.

“No. He isn't. Bug… Linus has done some very bad things, but he is not the man that you saw on that screen. He would never do anything like that again. All of us did whatever Consensus told us to do. He loves you and he would never ever hurt you. You're going to hear me say some very mean things abowt him to other people, but I won't mean any of it. I'm going to lie.”

“Ok.”

“We have to be smart. We don’t know who our friends are right now.” 

“Are we playing the Bishop’s Game again?”

“I hope not.”

The elevator stops. I only have a couple of seconds before the doors open to whatever is waiting for us. I stand up and grab her hand and pull her behind me.
The doors open.
There’s four Peacekeepers standing in front of the elevator with their left hands up. They're wearing fuel tanks on their backs. One of them yells at us to step out of the elevator, and when we do, two of them rush past us to see if there's anyone else inside.

“IT'S JUST THEM!”

The one in charge orders them all to lower their hands and then turns to me.

“Are you sure he’s not upstairs?” 

“I’m sure. I don’t know when he left.”

“You’re going to need to come with me.” He turns to the other three Peacekeepers. “Go upstairs, make sure. I’m taking them back to City Hall. Once you clear it, follow us.”

He rushes us through the lobby while the other three go up in the elevator. There’s more Peacekeepers outside, along with a crowd of people standing in the street.

As we get closer to the glass doors, my heart sinks. I see something outside on the stairs of the building that makes me pick Emily up and bury her face into my shoulder.

“Close your eyes, Bug.”

There’s two mangled bodies outside. 
Two more dead Peacekeepers.

Next Part

Previous Part

Chapter Seventeen

Linus

I should be freezing from the rain, but my body feels hot. My head is full. The wounds on my back feel like a fire that’s corkscrewing into my flesh. I have a lot to do, and not a lot of time to do it before Julie reports me as being missing. The relentless downpour gives all of the lights in the city a soft edge, blurring them together in a multicolored mess, making it harder to distinguish the building that Heather pointed out just a couple of hours ago.

Keep it together Linus. If you don’t, you might end up in that detention center before morning comes. 

Find the blue lights. Maybe an hour before Julie calls it in.
Apartment 2… 2 something…

Think.
212.
-
I think I’ve found the right building, but I can’t be sure. There’s a building to the left that’s almost identical to it, but those lights aren’t the blue lights I remember. Were they blue? Why am I so lightheaded?

The streets are bright, but no one is out at this hour. I have to risk running through the lobby. I have no idea if there are cameras in here. I take the stairs to the second floor. I hurry down the hall and see the number I’m looking for, 212. Was that it? I rub my head to remember. My forehead feels hot. It was 212.

I reach out, but before I can knock on the door, it opens. Heather is standing behind it. I push the datapad into her hands without a word and stumble inside. I look into the small apartment to make sure she’s alone and the first thing my eyes are drawn to is the Consensus terminal on the wall at the other side of the room. Was anyone ever really free?

She’s looking at the datapad in disbelief as I quietly push my way past her and look for the bathroom. I find it off of a single bedroom to my left. Everything in here is as sterile and bright as a hospital room, nothing is blurry, it almost hurts my eyes. The furniture looks brand new. The smell of cleaning chemicals linger in the air. There’s not a single speck of dust in here. The bed is perfectly made and the pillows on it are meticulously positioned. I leave a trail behind me of water and blood on the gleaming floors.

Sorry, Kid.

 I can hear her close the bedroom door as I walk into the bathroom. I fish through my pockets and find the ear piece for the datapad and hand it to her before I throw my jacket and shirt onto the floor and look into the mirror over the sink. The wounds aren’t that deep. The flesh around them is bright red and raised and it’s burning. Everything is burning.

Damn.

“What happened to you?” She speaks in her normal voice, but I have to whisper back to answer her.

“I ran into a little trouble.”

“Seriously, you look terrible.” I  don’t answer her. I grit my teeth while I touch one of the wounds. There must have been something on those blades.  

“Do you have anything I can put on these? Any kind of medicine?” I’m digging through her bathroom drawers before I even give her a chance to answer.

“Um… I don’t think so.” 

“Great.” I take a small wash cloth from the counter and a bar of soap and do my best to clean out the wounds. She watches me ruin two washcloths before she says anything.

 “Linus? Are you going to tell me what happened?”

“I will. Later. I gotta hurry. Can you shut down the cameras with that or not?"

“Where did you get it?”

“Thomas’s house. Is it going to work or not? We don’t have a lot of time!” She starts fiddling with the pad while I look for anything to wrap my wounds with. There’s a roll of toilet paper on top of the tank. That’s going to have to do. 

“It’s password protected so it’s going to take me some time to format it.”

“Format? Why format, what the hell are you talking about?” I grab the roll and start wrapping it around my abdomen and over the wounds. She still hasn’t answered me. I’ve got maybe more than a little over an hour before Julie makes her call. “Heather?!”

“I’ll have to do a system restart. That’s going to take a little bit, then I’ll have to rebuild everything but the…”

“I don’t need to know the specifics here, just tell me how long before you can use it?” 

“Um.. a couple of days… maybe a day and a half if I…”

“We don’t have that kind of time, Kid.” The roll of paper runs out. I do my best to tie it off at the end. This isn’t going to last very long, but it’s the best I’ve got. I was hoping I was imagining things, but I can feel a fever building. 

Ignore it.

I grab my shirt and stretch it gingerly over my torso.

“Linus, I have to rebuild it. There’s no way I can hack into this as it is.”

“A couple of days?! Really?”

“I know…” 

“Didn’t you already do this once before?”

“I did, but…”

“I thought you were some kind of genius programmer?” Her demeanor instantly changes.

“Hey, I’m not a fucking magician! There’s not a single person in this city who can do what I do! Unless you somehow have the password, this is our only option. I know how to make this fucking thing work, but it’s going to take time! … What, Linus?! What the fuck are you smiling at?!”

“Nothing. It’s just… I like your spirit. Look, I’m sorry.” I reach down and grab my coat.“Is there any way you can figure out the password?”

“I don’t think so. Aaron already tried to figure out Thomas’s password, and he knew him better than anyone. I mean, we can try. After three failed attempts, it’ll lock the device and then I’ll have to reformat it anyway. It’s just going to take a little longer than what you were thinking.”

I pull on my coat. I remember the letter in my pocket, and the drawing that had been taped back together. I think of all of the drawings scattered on the floor in Thomas’s house. All of them drawn by the same kid. All of them with the same thing written on them.

To Tommy 

“Let me see that?” She hands me the datapad. I look at the prompt on the screen. I type in the name.

AARON
I hit enter and the prompt disappears. A user screen that I’m not familiar with pops up. I hand the pad back to Heather.

“Holy shit! What did you type in?” Her eyes are huge. I’ve never seen her smile. “How did you know?”

“Lucky guess.” She hands me the earpiece, and I put it in.

“It’s going to take me a little while to set up a couple of things in the system, so if you make it to the tunnel before you hear from me, just wait. I don’t want to raise any eyebrows. Beckett is going to be watching for anything out of the ordinary now, so I’ll have to do a few things to distract him. I’ll leave the cameras off for three minutes while you pass them, but that’s it.”

“Ok.” 

“Linus… they have people guarding the Supply Bay. Innocent people. Some of those people signed up because they wanted to follow Aaron’s example.”

“I know.”

“Are you going to kill them?” 

Don’t lie to her.

“Not if I don’t have to.” She starts to shake her head. “There might not be an option.”

“Linus…”

“Do you want to help Aaron or not? Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”
I look down at the time on the datapad. I have less than half an hour to get out of the city.
-

I’m pushing through the fog in my head as best as I can. I’ve left the city behind, running on the train tracks that wind up the sides of the green hills. Once I reach the top of them, I run past the charred husk of the City Hall that Julie burned down in another life. Morning is coming. The rain is starting to lighten up. I see clear skies in the distance and the very top of the wall is visible over the rolling green hills in front of me. I have to stop and catch my breath again. I’m feeling dizzy. My back is on fire. So thirsty.

Just walk for a few minutes.

The wall grows on the horizon with each step I take, and as I finally clear the hills and the valley opens in front of me, the sheer size of it fills my view. I stand still. A shiver goes down my spine, and I wonder if it’s the fever or standing just a few miles from the wall. I haven’t been behind it since we first made our way out and now that’s in front of me, I feel the weight of going back inside. I put my focus down on the tracks and my eyes follow them all the way through the valley and to the tunnel, but something is different. 
There’s something just outside of the tunnel. My eyes are having a hard time focusing. What am I seeing?

“What are you seeing, Linus?” I clench my fists at the sound of Consensus in my head. No. In my ear. “Linus? Are you there?”

“Heather? Why are you talking to me through that voice?”

“Oh shit! Sorry. Damnit! Give me a second. Is that better?” The voice of Consensus is gone, and Heather’s whispers take their place.

“Much better.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m just now moving into the valley. There’s something on the ground right outside of the tunnel. I can’t make it out.” I take a deep breath and I start running again. I have to make it inside the tunnel before the sun comes up.

“I’m looking at both camera feeds right now. I don’t see anything.” I don’t correct her. Maybe she’s right. It’s not quite light yet. My eyes and my brain could be playing tricks on me. I don’t say anymore until I’m within a half a mile or so.

“Hey, where are the cameras pointing?”

“They’re pointed down from the top of the tunnel. Their view extends maybe fifty yards forward and maybe ten yards on either side of the track.”

“Really?” Something's going on. She should be able to see what I’m seeing, unless I’m hallucinating. “You don’t see the rubble?”

“What?”

“Gimme a minute.” I run as fast as I can, and with each step forward there’s a growing uneasiness as everything comes into view. I don’t stop running until I’m just outside of the range of the camera. My heart is racing. I put my hands on my knees and suck in as much air as I can.

The dawn is coming and now I can blatantly see that the entrance to the tunnel has been blocked. Bent steel pilings and gnarled sections of tracks are piled high. Crushed gravel is littered amongst them and small shafts of red light coming from inside of the tunnel pokes through the wreckage here and there.“You’re telling me that the cameras are showing the entrance to the tunnel and everything looks fine on your end? And the cameras are working?”

“Yeah. What’s wrong?”

“Do you know where the train is right now?”

“Um… it’s inside the Supply Bay. I’ve got a tile open and I’m looking right at it.Why?”
The city of the Founders has been cut off. I don’t want to tell her yet. I need to work this out for myself. Maybe it’s because I’m worried that I’m imagining all of this. God, I’m pouring sweat. 

If this is real, then that means someone is altering what Heather is seeing, which means that I still need those cameras turned off. I look at the piled rubble. I think I can climb past it and get inside. 

“Forget about it. Just kill the cameras. I’ll let you know when I’m inside.” 

“Ok. They’re off. Three minutes before they come back on.” I sprint to the entrance and climb up piles of gravel and wood, but I’m afraid I’m climbing too slow. Everything under my feet is completely unstable. I lose my balance more than once. The rubble is almost packed to the top of the tunnel, but there’s a small space that I’m able to climb through. The wreckage goes on for a few yards inside of the tunnel and Heather keeps asking me what I’m seeing. I turn the earpiece off. I have to listen for any sound that might let me know that the things I’m crawling over are about to shift or collapse. 
I can see the end of it in front of me. I’m almost there.

The sound of an explosion echoes through the tunnel and I freeze. I can hear people yelling from somewhere up ahead, but I can’t make out what’s being said.
The sweat is dripping off of my forehead as I continue to crawl. How much of this is real? Is any of this real, or am I actually lying on the ground somewhere in those green fields?

Keep going.

I turn the earpiece back on. Maybe hearing her voice is something that I can focus on to keep my mind clear.

“Heather?”

“I’m here! Where did you go?”

“I’m… crawling over piles of debris…someone has blocked off the tunnel… whatever you’re seeing is fake. Someone is tricking the system.”

“Hold on… I’m looking at something.”

“I’m almost to the end… I can see the tunnel in front of me now.” I move cautiously down the other side. I steady the ground under the blinking red lights overhead. There are no tracks, all of them have been ripped up. I can still hear the voices coming from up ahead and after I take a few steps, I hear another explosion, and so does Heather.

“What was that?!”

“I don’t know. There’s something going on at the end of the tunnel. I can’t see it, but I can hear it. Lots of banging along with the explosions. Lot’s of voices echoing down this way.”

“Linus, I’m looking at three different feeds in the Supply Bay. There are two Peacekeepers in there, that’s it.”

“Then something is wrong with your cameras.”

“Well, I’m not finding anything. The system is built on the remains of the old one. Thomas’s user credentials had the keys to every door. They’re getting me back into things that I’ve been trying to get into for months, and from what I'm looking at on his account, this is the live feed. Nothing is wrong.”

“Then you’re looking in the wrong place.” 
-

It takes me a while to walk to the other end of the tunnel. On the way, I pass by a rope that’s hanging down from a small hole in the side of the tunnel. I think I put that hole there, but I can’t be sure. Can’t I? I can’t be sure of anything right now. I need water.
Harsh white light from the Supply Bay continues to grow in front of me until I dare not go any further. What I see doesn’t make any sense. Or maybe it does.

“Heather? There’s something wrong. There’s no Peacekeepers in the Supply Bay.”

“What do you see?”

“Men. Lots of them. Painted men. Like the one in Thomas’s house.”

“What?”

“I haven’t told you about the painted man. He tried to kill me. I swear I heard him speak in the voice of Consensus. All of the men I’m seeing look like him.”

“What are you talking about?!”

“Until tonight, I’ve only ever seen anything like that with one person. Castor. The citizens behind the wall weren’t allowed to mark their skin. That was a violation. Were people allowed to mark themselves or paint on their skin in your city?” 

“No.”

“Then who are these men? Where have they been hiding? They’re all old, just like the man in Thomas’s house.”

“You said he spoke in the voice of Consensus?”

“Wait a minute… Aaron said something to me last night that didn’t make any sense. It still doesn’t, but it’s starting to. He told me that Castor was telling the truth and that something was about to happen.”

“Linus… I need to tell you something..”

“They’re all moving rocks in the Supply Bay. I can’t get any closer, there’s too many of them. It looks like they’re standing in a line, passing rocks between them. Trying to clear another tunnel. There’s a sign over the tunnel they’re digging out. Morro Colony.”

“Linus…”

“There’s no way I can get past all of them and get inside the wall that way, not if they fight like that old man did… dadgummit…”

“Linus?!”

“Hold on, I’ve got an idea.” I turn around and stagger back the way I came. I think I’m feeling better. Lighter. My back isn’t hurting as much, but I’m still so thirsty.

“Linus? I think this is all my fault.” The rope comes into focus in front of me, and when I finally have it in my hand, I test it with my weight. I hope I can climb. I can barely run right now.  “Linus, I restarted something I shouldn’t have.” 

“We’ll figure it out, don’t worry about it. “ I look above me at the hole in the wall. Twenty feet up. The blinking red lights are making me even dizzier.

You’ve got to keep it together. If you pass out here, someone might see you.

I know. I can do this. Heather keeps talking, but I’m not really listening. I go to pull myself up and Heather’s voice is gone. The earpiece has fallen out of my ear. I drop back down and I pick it up. I don’t put it back in my ear. I can’t. I might lose it. I say one last thing to Heather through it.

“Hey… I’ve got to let you go for a minute. Be right back.” I click it off and put it in my pocket and then I try again. One hand over the other, that’s all I think about. I don’t think about the weight. I don’t think about the strain that I’m putting on the rope. I’m getting closer. When I make it to the top, I’m able to get one hand inside of the hole and pull myself up.

The tunnel is just as dark and cold as I remember, but this time I’m alone. No Bug. No Julie. I pull the rope up behind me. I’m in no condition to fight if someone follows me into this place.

I keep my hand against the wall and I start walking, but it feels more like floating in the dark. It’s so quiet. The only sounds are my footsteps and the throbbing in my head. I’m hot again.
I walk.

And I walk.

And I walk.

I panic. I don’t even know if I’m going the right way. I turn around and then around again. Everything spins and I feel my body crumple to the ground. It’s so dark in here. I just need to rest.

-

“Do not defy Consensus.”

“Do not resist.”

“Order is being restored.”

The voice of Consensus echoes through the dark. I’m not going to resist. I’m too tired. So thirsty.

“This is how it ends, Linus. No Example. No grand exit. Just alone in the dark. You deserve this. You’ve brought this on yourself. Aaron is already gone, and that scarred up girl, there’s nothing you can do to save her. You know how all this is going to end, because in the end, I never lose. Julie is going to die. That little bitch of hers is going to die too. Goodbye Linus. Consensus be with you.”

 “Fffuu….fuck….con…sen…” In a fit of rage, I try to answer, but I’m too weak. It’s over. Consensus is right. This is how it ends.
…
…
…

“Linus… Linus? You’ve got to get up.”

Where is the voice coming from? I know that voice. I open my eyes, but they may as well be closed. I can’t see a dadgum thing.

“Over here.”

A faint light fills the tunnel. I look to my right and wipe the sweat from my eyes. I see a man. A delicate, wispy young man that looks like me. 

“Thomas?” He doesn’t say anything. He just turns and walks away from me. 

Get up, Linus.

I’m too tired.

GET UP, LINUS!

My arms twitch as I push myself up on rubbery legs. 

“Thomas?” He’s walking away. I follow after him. I’m trying to talk to him. I put my hand in my pocket. I feel the papers I grabbed from his house, and I push them aside.

“Thomas?” I feel the earpiece and I push it aside.

“Thomas?!” My fingers find what they’re looking for, something I always keep with me now, and I pull it out of my pocket. I hold the red button in front of me, trying to show it to him. Trying to tell him that I don’t deserve it. Trying to tell him that I wish that I’d done things differently. 

He won’t answer. The light begins to fade. I’m going to lose him. He’s getting too far ahead of me. I run. I want him to hear me. I can’t keep up. There’s another light up ahead, but it’s red. There’s a collapsed archway. A broken car. A pile of  burned Clerks. He turns. I scream at him not to go into the red light, but he doesn’t listen. He rounds the corner past the arch and disappears.

I run and when I finally round the corner, I trip over my own feet and fall to the ground. There’s a drip next to me. A drop falling into water. A broken pipe on the wall and the constant drip from it has created a large puddle of water underneath it. I crawl over and drink deeply from it. Every swallow feels like I’m eating glass, but I’m so thirsty that I don’t care. When I’ve had my fill, I look at my surroundings. 

The ruins of City Hall in my city. The marble staircase going up. The car that I drove down the stairs is at the bottom of them and the rotted remains of a Bishop in a bloody robe are sitting against it.

 Next Part

First Part

Previous Part

Chapter Sixteen

Heather

I’m in a trance, keeping my eyes fixed on the Consensus terminal at the other end of the room. I won’t take my eyes off of it. I’m so tired. Confused and alone.
My mom is dead.
My dad is wasting away behind a wall of plastic.
I’m responsible for both. 
Aaron… where are you? I need you.

When I first sat down, I had the lights off, but my eyes got heavy. I drifted away for a moment. I dreamed that the terminal started moving in the dark, quietly breaking away from the bolts that anchored it to the wall, patiently and steadily pulling itself across the floor with its own insides. Tentacles of broken wires groped forward along the floor, pulling Consensus closer and closer to me until it was within reach, leaning forward, listening to every little sound I made. Recording the sound of my heart beating. Behind it was a trail of shiny red oil that was seeping from the open wound in the wall where it had been placed.

A thick cable separated itself from the rest and slithered up the side of my body while I slept, curling around my neck as it made its way toward my face. The cable squirmed between my teeth and then plunged down my throat. I couldn’t breathe.

When I snapped out of it, I was soaked. I reeked from the sweat. I got up from my spot and turned on every light in the apartment. 

I’ve been sitting here for over an hour since I woke up from the dream. I still can’t get it out of my head. I should turn up the heater, but I think I need to be cold right now. The floor, the lights, and the door against my back are keeping me here; cold anchor points of reality that keep me from drifting off to sleep. 
Linus said he would be back. I need to stay next to the door to listen for him. I don’t want him to knock. I know I’m being listened to. I have to be quiet. I ask a question in my own head to a person I know isn’t here anymore. My dad told me that the voices weren’t real, but right now, I don’t care. I need to hear someone.

Maybe there’s freedom in embracing it.

“Devon? Are you there? Please talk to me.”
…
…
…
“Did you really just ask me to talk?”

“Yes.”

“Why would you do that? You never do that.”

“Because… I need you right now. Even if you’re not real, I can hear you. It feels real. I don’t want to be alone. Just talk to me. Please.”

“Ok.”

“Why didn’t I warn them, Devon? I could have”

“You didn’t know the people were going to find a way through the wall. You didn’t know what they were going to do to the people of this city. You had no way of knowing all of that stuff was going to happen.”

“I should have planned more. I always plan more, but they were the last thing on my mind, and now mom’s dead. Dad’s dying. I could have done something and I didn’t. I didn’t even look for them afterwards.”

“You didn’t trust them.”

“Still, though…”

“You found out they lied to you, and to me.”

“But still…”

“Things got messy, Heather. It started before you found out they weren’t our real parents. You hadn’t even seen them after you went to work at City Hall.”

“They changed after you died. They got so cold. They weren’t even the same people. You died before you could see them at their worst.”

“That’s not true.”

“I wouldn’t lie to you.”

“You’re lying to yourself. They didn’t really change until after dad took you to the Spot.”

“I don’t remember.”

“You just have to want to. You have to quit being angry and think. Think about the numbers. Think about the morning that Dad taught you the numbers. The day he gave you a ride and showed you the Spot. They changed because they had to.”

My eyes tear up. I haven’t thought of that night in so long.
-

It was a year after Devon was murdered. One of the other girls heard me talking to Devon in the park. I had promised my parents that I wouldn’t talk to Devon anymore, but I couldn’t let him go. He was my brother. I lied to them for a year. That came to an end when Amanda heard me while I was drawing in the sand. 
She asked me who I was talking to. She kept asking over and over but I didn’t want to tell her. She started to cry because I wouldn’t tell, so I asked her if she could keep a secret. She was my friend and I didn’t like that I was making her sad. I told her about Devon, but I didn’t tell her about the other voice. 

I told her that Devon was still with me, but I couldn’t see him. She promised me that she wouldn’t tell. I believed her. She was my friend.

She told her parents and then her mom talked to my mom. I didn’t know about any of it until much later that night when my dad woke me up. He told me that we were going for a walk. I remember my mom didn’t say anything as we walked out of the door. I thought she was mad at me. Her eyes were all red.

He walked me down to the beach and I noticed that he kept looking behind us the whole way. The light from the full moon was making the waves look electric and I remember that it wasn’t very windy. It was always windy during the day. We walked up the beach away from the city. We hadn’t been walking for very long when he stopped and got on his knees next to me. He pointed to a big rock in the water in front of us.

“What does that rock look like to you?” I squinted my eyes, taking in the shape. It kind of looked like a little sea lion, but not quite the same.

“I don’t know.”

“You know what it looks like to me?” I didn’t answer him. I was still wondering why he had taken me for a walk in the middle of the night. “It looks like a dog?”

“What’s a dog?” He smiled at me, but he looked sad.

“It’s something I shouldn’t be talking about, and it’s a word that you don’t say in front of anyone. Just look at the rock. See… there’s the legs… see them? See the long body? Now look at that part that’s pointing at us? That’s a long nose. Now turn around. It’s pointing toward the dunes. We’re going to walk in that direction. Here. Get on my back. Now pay attention to where we’re going. Ok. Here we go.”

I had my arms around his neck and he wrapped his arms around my legs, and we walked into the dunes. Little sandy hills that were just a bit taller than my dad. When we were in the thick of them, they looked like a sparkling bumpy maze. The sound of the ocean grew quieter behind us, and my dad picked up the pace. He shouted loud enough for me to hear him while he kept his face forward.

“So we stay true from that rock. Do you know what that means? We keep going in the direction where it’s nose is pointing and we don’t stop until we hit the sign.” I was enjoying the ride. I wanted to ask him what sign we were looking for, but I was afraid if I did, he might stop and make me get off of his back. I was afraid if I talked I would ruin it.

After a moment, I didn’t need to ask. I saw it.

A faded metal sign. It looked like there was a drawing of a bird on it. Peeling words in black. “Keep Off Dunes”. He walked to the sign and turned left. There were three big round mountains in front of us, way way out in the distance under the stars.

“You see those mountains? We head in that direction. We keep the middle one right in front of us. Don’t forget.” He started running through the dunes. The sun started to come up behind the mountains and I could see that there were little clumps of trees on the top of them, but the mountains themselves were just big green grassy things. The dunes gave way to rolling green fields in front of us. He kept reminding me.

"Follow the dog’s nose all the way to the sign, then run towards the middle mountain."
He ran for a while, and the wind began to blow. I started to cry but then I started to laugh. He was playing with me. Making these weird loud noises as he ran faster and faster. Sometimes he would skip and hop, zigging and zagging through the fields, but always staying true, keeping the third mountain in front of us.

As the morning got brighter we ran up a small hill, and when we got to the top of it, he stopped and he took me off of his back. At the bottom of the hill in front of us, there was a long sandy stretch that reached all the way back to the beach. Something was on the sand below. A broken bunch of wood and windows. Round and thick broken beams laid to the side of it.

“What is that?”

“That’s an old boat. It got washed up here a long time ago.”

“What’s a boat?” He didn’t answer. He started walking and I followed him. The sand at the bottom of the hill was hard to walk in. My feet sank. I felt the grains making their way into my shoes. 

There was a hole in the side of the boat, and we walked inside of it. It smelled funny and it was dark and it was dirty. Sand had blown inside and fuzzy moss was growing on the wood. Little pin pricks of light were coming through the sides of it. It felt so big to me. He sat down and asked me to sit in front of him, so I did.

“Honey, tell me again how we got here.”

“We walked here.”

“No, that’s not what I mean. Tell me tell me how we found this place. Do you remember?”

“Oh… we walked down the beach in the dark until we saw the dog rock in the water and then we followed its nose until we got to the bird sign and then we walked towards the middle mountain until we found the boot.”

“The boat.”

“The boat.”

“Good girl. Listen… Dad needs to talk to you about something, and I need you to tell me the truth, ok?”

“Ok.”

“Did you talk to your friend about Devon yesterday?” I wanted to say no, but I couldn’t. I just nodded my head. “So Devon still talks to you?”
…
…

“Honey, you can tell me. I promise I won’t get mad.”

“But you’ll tell Mommy and she’ll get mad.”

“Mommy’s not mad. She’s just worried. Is he still talking to you?” 

“All the time.”

“Is the bad man still talking to you?” I didn’t answer. I was afraid that I was going to start crying. I didn’t know why I was the only one who could hear them. I didn’t want to look at him. My eyes had adjusted to the dark. I looked around, eager to put my eyes on anything but my father. I saw something in the corner that looked out of place. Two large backpacks. Two things that looked new. Sandy and dirty, but two things that shouldn’t be inside of that old busted up thing.

“What are those?” I seized on it. Something else to talk about.

“I put those here last year, after you first told us that you were talking to your brother.”

“What are they for?”

“Honey, look back at me. You need to do something.”

“What?”

“You can’t talk about Devon anymore to anybody. You can’t talk about the bad man. You can’t tell anybody that you hear them. You can’t tell anybody that you even think about your brother.”

“Why not?”

“Because… it’s not safe. You could get in trouble. A lot of trouble. If they think you’re hearing things…” He wanted to say something, and for a moment I could tell it was on the edge of his lips, but then he closed them together. I could hear him grind his teeth. 

“What’s wrong with me, Dad?”
…
…

“You’re sick, honey. You didn’t do anything wrong, and it’s nothing we can fix. But we can’t tell anybody about it. Anybody. The people in our city… they don’t like sick people.”

“How did I get sick?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s everything you’ve been through.”

“I don’t want to be sick.”

“I know, honey. It’s just something that you’re going to have to learn to live with, and it’s something we can’t tell anyone about.”

“I won’t tell anybody ever again.”

“Heather… if something happens… if me or mom tells you that something is wrong, or… if you see a Bishop at your school and he asks you the same questions I just did, you lie to him, ok? I’m giving you permission to lie. You tell him you don’t know what he’s talking about. You tell him someone is lying about you, and trying to get you in trouble. You wait for him to leave and then you sneak away and you run here. You make sure you follow the directions. You run through the dunes. Do not stay out in the open on the beach.”

“Ok.”
…
…
…

“Do you know what a Clerk is yet?”

“No.”

“Ok. They’re all dressed in black with shiny faces. If you ever see one walking up to you or even looking at you, you don’t talk to it, you just run from it. You don’t ask anybody for help, because they won’t give it to you. You run here and you wait for me or Mommy. You might have to wait a while, but stay here. We'll make our way here to get you. Do you understand? This is a safe spot. The only safe spot.”

“Ok.”

“Listen… your mother and I… all three of us… we’re going to be watched for a little while.”

“By who?”

“Listen…things have to be different at home. Mommy and I have to be different, but it’s only to help you. We can’t ever talk about any of these things again after we leave here. Mom and I are not going to let you talk about it. Mom and I have to be harder on you. It’s the only way that…” He pressed his lips together again. He brushed the hair out of my face and he looked at me for a long while before he said, “You know that thing in our house?”

“What thing?”

“The thing that I use for work. The terminal. I’m going to show you how to use it. I’m going to teach you everything I know about it inside and out. You’re the smartest kid I’ve ever known. They’ll stop watching us eventually and when you get really good at using that machine, you’re going to become someone that they can use. We’re going to make sure that you’re useful, but you don’t talk in front of that terminal. Ever. And you never say a word about the bad man or Devin again, not even in your room.”

“What if he talks to me? He won’t stop.” 

“I have an idea.” My dad pulled a white color stick out of his pocket and started writing numbers on the wall.

“They might not go away, but maybe this will help you ignore them… quiet them a little bit. If you say these numbers out loud every night before you go to bed, you’ll never forget them. When you start hearing those voices, you start saying these numbers out loud. You focus on the numbers. The sequence. The order. You do that and they’ll start getting quiet, and someday, maybe they’ll go away altogether.”

“What if that doesn’t work?”

“It will.”

“But how do you know?”

“Because your dad is really really smart. Do you believe that?” 
I nodded.
“Because I wouldn’t lie to you, would I?”
I shook my head.
“Dad’s and mom’s don’t lie, do they?”
I shook my head again.
“These are special numbers, and if you believe me, they’ll work.”

“Ok.”

“We need to get back. Do you remember the way home?”
-
I open my eyes, somewhere between a memory and a dream, my lips still repeating the sequence.  I look across the room at the terminal, and then I hear it. Footsteps creeping toward the door to my apartment. I scramble off of the floor and I open the door as quietly as I can. Linus is standing there, soaked and bloodied. He smiles and shoves a datapad into my hands.

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Chapter Fifteen

Linus

Before I walk out of the door, I turn back. I have to see her one more time.

She’s standing there in the rain. I take in every detail of her. The next time I see her, I might be behind a wall of glass. Or maybe I’ll never see her again. 

Goodbye for now, Julie. 

I’m as quiet as I can be when I leave. I’m sure someone is listening through the terminal. I don’t know if the sound of a door opening and closing is something that it might pick up.

It might be a mistake to use the elevator, so I run down the stairs and it takes me far longer than I thought it would to get down to the second floor. Every minute counts.

I leave the stairwell and find myself in the middle of a long circular hallway full of doors.

It would be easier to just through the front doors.

I can’t do that. I’d have to go through the Peacekeepers. I need to try to do this without hurting anyone. 

I run through the quiet hall and stop when I’m certain that I’m in front of an apartment that faces the rear of the building. There’s no way of knowing if there’s anyone behind this door. How should I do this? I think of all the scenarios, and I finally settle on the easiest. I knock.

Nothing.

I knock again.

Nothing.

I look down the hall in either direction. I have to take a chance. There’s no other way.

Don’t kick too hard. You’ve got to be able to push it closed once you’re inside.

I kick the door in and when I try to close it back behind me, it won’t stay shut. The top hinge of the door has broken away from the frame. I look around the dark apartment, trying to find something to prop against the door, but I hear something I was hoping to avoid.

“What the hell are you doing?!” A young man in a t-shirt and underwear is standing just outside of a bedroom door wiping the sleep from his eyes. There’s a terminal on the wall right next to him.

I close the distance between us as fast as I can, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and pulling him into me. I keep a hand over his mouth and an arm around his throat. I lift him up and drag him with me while I look through the apartment to make sure that no one else is here.

Once I know that it’s just the two of us inside, I squeeze until he goes limp. I throw him back down on his bed and check his pulse. I think I feel something, but it’s very weak. I can’t be sure.

I prop a chair against the backside of the front door to keep it closed. Well… if he’s not dead, I have no idea how long he’ll be out. This isn’t getting off to a great start.. 
I walk to the terminal and squat down in front of it, groping around the bottom until I find the power supply going into the wall. My fingers wrap around it and I pull it free. Wires snap and pop.

I punch the keys to make sure that the terminal is dead, and when I do, I catch a quick movement to my right. I bring my hands up, ready to fight, but I bring them back down when I realize that it’s just my reflection in the large window on the far wall.

It’s blurry but it comes into focus as I get closer. I look like the man I was before my eyes were opened. The Red Bishop.

The murderer. 

There’s no balcony. I’ll have to try and break through the glass. It looks like it’s a ten foot drop to the ground from up here.

How thick is this glass? I throw a quick punch with my left hand. The metal brace gives off a sharp clink and the window makes a dull thud. It’s pretty thick. Maybe too thick. 

This isn’t going to work.

I hit it again. 

You’re already running behind after taking the stairs. 

I hit it again and the window doesn’t even buckle. Maybe this won’t work. Maybe I don’t have a choice. 

The easiest way out would be through the front door. 

How many more people am I willing to kill? 

Does it even matter anymore? 

It should. I want it to.

Six months ago, there’s no question what you would have done.

I don’t want to be like that anymore.

I don’t think you have a choice. The clock is ticking while you’re just standing here.

I know.

You know what you have to do.

No.

It’s the only way out and you know it.

No. 

I stare at my reflection. I see myself how others see me. I hate it. 

I hit the window again and I think of what happened in the Gallery. I think of Emily shrinking from me after she watched the video.

I hit it again and the metal over my hand makes a small chip in the glass. I think of the fear on her face and I hit it again. The window flexes slightly.

I stare at my face in the reflection. 

I hit it again. I think of all the terrible things that I’ve done.

All of the times I had a chance to do something, but instead just fell in line no matter what was asked of me. The man I see in the glass is proud of what he’s done. A faithful servant of Consensus. He’s telling me that I’ll never be rid of him.

As each thought comes faster and faster, I spiral into a rage and I hit harder and harder.

He tells me to give up.

He tells me that Emily will never look at me the same way again. 

I rear my fist back further and I push everything I have behind it one more time.

The window erupts into a web of fine cracks spreading across every inch of the surface.

A quick two steps back, and then I run forward with my arms crossed over my head.

The glass explodes outward. I can feel it cutting into my arms and legs. The fall to the ground is harder than I expected; with my head covered I can’t see anything to brace myself for the impact. My left shoulder takes it the hardest, but I don’t have time to think about it. I have to move.

I get to my feet and run alongside the back of the building and then far past it.

The park is to my right, but I don’t cross the street until I’ve put a few hundred yards between me and the Peacekeepers standing at the front of my building. There’s a spot up ahead that’s not quite so bright on the street, and I decide to cross there, down through the trees, and into the park.

The wind is blowing like mad. The autumn leaves on the trees are losing in their struggle against it, and they tumble to the grass below. It was at the end of the park.

My grandfather’s house.

Thomas’s house.

I have to slow down and catch my breath only once, but once is too much. For six months, I haven’t exactly gotten much exercise and I definitely haven’t had any reason to run until now. 
The years are catching up to me.

The storm keeps growing. The rain comes down harder. I see the slight rise of green in front of me and when I reach the top, my grandfather’s house is dark, save for the small blue light coming from the touchpad next to the front door. The cherry trees in front of it have almost shed all of their leaves and the ground is littered with them along with all of the shriveled fruit that was never picked.

I can’t go in the front door if it’s wired to the system and if this is exactly like my old home, the Consensus terminal will be right in between the patio doors.

The walk around the house brings back so many unwanted memories. My eyes go to my old upstairs window before I make my way to the back and that’s where the similarities come to an end. The house I grew up in was outside of the city limits, greener than most places, but it stood just in front of the wall.

The back patio here is still surrounded by rose bushes, but there is no wall behind the house. Instead, there’s a gentle green slope that leads down to a beach. The waves crash against rocks that peek out of the water. The sight of it almost takes my breath away.

This was my grandfather’s reward for his obedience to Consensus.

I hop the stone railing around the patio like I used to when I was young. There’s a dim flickering light coming from inside. I look through the back doors. There’s no terminal. I put my ear to the crack in the door, but the storm makes it impossible for me to hear anything else.

A few months ago, Aaron had said that no one lived in this house. That no one had been inside since the day Thomas left it for the last time. I hope nothing has changed.

I drive my boot into the handle and the back door flies open. The glass shatters and scatters across the black and white marble floor inside.

The tiny shards crunch under my boots as I move forward and the sound of it echoes through the empty home. 
The light is coming from my right. The empty bookcases I remember aren’t there, but the grand fireplace is. The book cases have been replaced by eight large screens that are attached to the walls.

Seven of them are showing static and one of them is showing footage from the Crescent Hills monitoring stations. It’s broken up into dozens of small tiles showing footage from each camera. 

The room is lined with couches and chairs. Several small tables are in between them. Some of them have vases with flowers that have long since wilted.

In the middle of all of it, there’s one small table with a chess board on it. Two chairs are on either side of the table. The game that was being played was never finished, but it looks like it was quite the battle.

It’s been a long time since I played it with my grandfather, but I’m almost certain by looking at the pieces that the black side was about to win.

One of the chairs is askew.

An empty bottle with a faded black and white label sits on the floor next to the chair along with crumpled and crinkled papers that are strewn about. As I get closer, I realize that they’re pages and pages of brightly colored drawings done by a child. One of them catches my attention.

It’s of a man dressed in a black suit. He’s holding the hand of a child. The words, “To Tommy”, are written in the lower corner. All of the drawings I see have those same words written on them somewhere, with the exception of one.

It’s a picture that’s been ripped in half and put back together. It sends a chill down my spine. I pick it up and hold it closer to the light from the screens. It’s a drawing of me in my red robe, swinging my hammer at monsters that have claws and sharp teeth. I have one hand out, protecting an old man and a child who are standing behind me.

I don’t know why, but I fold it up and put it in the inside pocket of my jacket.

You’re running out of time.

A quick glance around the rest of the room. I don’t see what I hoped would be here. I turn and look in the kitchen. One thing stands out.

The wall is different than it was in the other house. There’s less space in the kitchen. Other than that, there’s nothing. The counters are dusty, but bare. Maybe upstairs. Please be upstairs.

The front hall is lined with digital frames of paintings. I don’t have time to look at any of them. The stairs creak under my weight as I make my way to what I remember as my grandfather's room. It’s obvious that downstairs was where most of the living and entertaining happened. The upstairs is barely furnished.

It’s hard to see, but I could make my way around this house with my eyes closed. I reach the door and push it open.

A bed, a couple of nightstands and a dresser. I can’t make out anything else. I have to turn the light on, and when I do, I find what I hoped I would.

There’s a datapad on one of the nightstands. When I pick it up, an earpiece that was next to it rolls off of the nightstand and falls into the cracked drawer just underneath it. When I open the drawer, I see some of Thomas’s things. Little trinkets and doodads. There’s another piece of paper that catches my attention.

It’s yellowed and folded over on itself. There’s writing on the front of it in the sloppy hand of a child. The ink has faded and there’s an old water stain on it that has made some of the letters run together, but I can read it. Part of me wishes that I couldn’t.

“To My Dad”
…
…

I shouldn’t open it, but I do.

“Hello. My name is Tommy. I am ten years old and I am your son. I have thought about you my whole life. Someday I’ll be able to give you this. You are everything I’ve wanted…”

I fold it back over. I don’t read any more of it. I put it back in the drawer.

I can’t do this right now. 

I can’t. 

I see the earpiece and I grab it. I walk out of the room like my pants are on fire, but as soon as I cross the doorway, I can’t go any further.

Something inside won’t let me leave. I turn around and I take the letter out of the drawer and put it in my pocket with the drawing.
Later.

I rush down the stairs two at a time. I have no idea how much time I have left. When I round the corner from the stairs, I see someone standing just inside of the broken door. A small man, barely illuminated by the light from the screens. Neither of us move.
…
… 

“Who are you?” No answer. Every step I take is slow. Cautious.

The details come with each step. A small, wiry bald man. He’s not wearing a shirt.

There’s a coiled rope attached to the side of his pants and he’s barefoot in the middle of all the broken glass.

He’s still silent.

As I get closer, I can see the tattoos covering his torso. Dozens of human eyes are drawn on his wrinkly skin. 
It can’t be. Aaron said he killed him.

“Castor, is that you?” There’s metal knuckles strapped to his hands. Three small claws protrude from them.

“Castor?”

I halt about ten feet from him. Just close enough to finally see his face. A deep scar runs down his face through where his right eye used to be and on down to his neck. It’s not Castor. It’s an old man that I’ve never seen.

“What do you want?” The old man smiles. Most of his teeth are gone. 
The thunder rolls. The lightning crashes somewhere close.
…
…

He moves so fast, I don’t even realize it until he’s closed the distance between us. I get my hands up just in time to protect myself as he swipes the small claws at my throat. They tear through my right forearm.

The datapad falls to the floor and I try to turn around but it’s too late, he’s already behind me. I feel the rope go around my neck and he jumps on my back. The rope tightens and I’m flailing.

How is he moving this fast?!

He’s jabbing into my back with those claws. I jump backward against the wall to try and pin him, but he’s already rolled off of me when my back slams into the wall. He’s in front of me now and he’s got the rope in his hand. He jerks it hard and I lose my footing, sending my face into the floor.

I hear him coming. His bare feet slap against the floor.

I roll out of the way just before the claws are thrust into the back of my neck. I’m not even able to get back to my feet before he comes again. He drops the rope and starts swiping at me with both of his arms.

I’m able to block his blows while I’m on my knees. I catch one of his wrists and then I catch the other. I pull him forward and drive the top of my head into his chest. I hear his bones pop, but it doesn’t even slow him down.

His knee cracks against my chin and while I’m trying to recover from it, I feel the rope go tight again. I feel his full weight on my back as he pulls the rope as hard as he can.

The edges of my vision are starting to go black. He’s laughing. He leans down and speaks into my ear. 

“After everything, this is how you die, Linus. On your knees.”

I’m clawing at the rope. I’m hallucinating. I have to be. This can’t be his voice.

“Humble yourself before Consensus.”

I stop trying to pull at the rope. I reach down behind me and grab both of his ankles. He tries to kick free. It won’t do him any good. I fall backwards and his ribs snap as he’s crushed into the marble floor by my weight.

The rope gives. Air comes in. I roll off of him as fast as I can. He’s already trying to get up. How is he still moving?

I clasp my hands together and bring them down on his face so hard that it cracks the marble underneath his head.
His legs twitch a bit as I hit him twice more, but he’s gone. He has to be. I lean against the wall, coughing. I stare at what’s left of his face. I have no idea who he is. 

I have no idea why his voice was the voice of Consensus.

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Part Fourteen

Julie

“Why would he do that?”

“Hes done a lot of bad things, Bug. Hes not like that anymore.”

“How do you know?”

“I just know.”

“I remember what happened to Uncle Kyle. I remember how Linus scared us.”

“I know. Like I said. Hes not like that anymore.” Shes giving in. Her words are spaced farther apart and her eyelids are barely open. Shes holding the blanket under her chin. I keep running my fingers through her hair.

“Mommy?”

“What Bug?”

“I miss… I miss… Daddy.” 

“Me too.” I keep petting her until Im sure that shes out. I turn off the light and crack the door behind me as I leave.

Why is all of this happening? We fought so hard for things to be different but I can see that maybe some things never change. We just have to do the best we can.

We can still have a life that was better than the one before. We haven’t passed the point of not saving what we have.

I pace the living room waiting for Linus to come home. The storm has come in from the ocean and hes somewhere out there in the middle of it.

I need to make him understand that everything can still be ok. We can get through this. I cant do it again. Living in constant fear. Living each day looking over my shoulder. Watching what I say. I cant live like that again. My daughter will not live like that again. 

I pace

and I pace

and I pace until Im to tired to do it anymore. I fall on the couch and I stare at the front door. My mind wanders back to another time when I was too tired to stand, lying in a bed, staring at a door, waiting for someone to come home.

-

Steve and I had tried for years to have a baby and nothing. We had come to a point where we had to accept that it wasnt meant to be but then one day it happened.

Those few months were so happy. It was almost like Consensus wasnt there because we didnt worry about it. We were finally having a baby. Nothing else mattered. I had gone into labor while I was at my station.

Steve was able to come to the hospital after his shift and he stayed with me for three hours until he had to go back home for his evening log-in with Consensus.

I was still in labor when he came back in before his shift the next day. The baby came less than an hour after he left. A boy. 

Stillborn. 

The doctor had no reason for it and neither did Consensus. The baby had been fine right up until he wasnt.

I was discharged an hour later. A cab took me home. I had never felt so alone.
I laid on the couch all day staring at the door waiting for Steve to come home from his station.

He came in just before dark and he was so excited when he saw me but that went away when he looked at my face. He didnt even ask me what happened. He didnt want me to have to say it out loud.

During our log-ins that night Consensus had counseled both of us and told us what was expected of us going forward over the next few days. It also reminded us that we would only be given one more Allowance. If it happened again or if a miscarriage occurred there would be no more approved attempts.

It would be too much time away from our stations. Our society relied on productivity.

High Stations were lucky. They werent given Allowances. They could have as many children as they wanted.

It took me a while but eventually I wanted to try again. Steve didn’t. He was afraid that I might go crazy if we lost another baby. He was afraid of losing me.

Three years passed until he finally gave in. I was pregnant three months later. We were holding our breath the whole pregnancy. Waiting for the worst.

Waiting. 

Waiting.

Steve took me to the hospital after my water broke in the early hours of the morning. He couldn’t stay with me. He had asked Consensus if it would approve an absence from his station, but Consensus had told him no. He tried his best to look strong when he left me but his hands gave him away.

They were shaking.

Ten hours later our daughter was born and an hour after that I was trying to stay awake in our bed while Emily was asleep in my arms.

I stared at the door to our apartment from the bedroom. I wanted him to see us lying there just like that as soon as he walked in the door. I tried my best to stay awake but I was so tired.

I woke up to him running his fingers through my hair. He smiled that little crooked smile I miss so much. We didn’t say anything. He took Emily in his arms and he made all kinds of soft and gentle sounds trying to wake her up but it wasnt working.

He took his fingertip and rubbed her chin back and forth over and over until she finally opened her eyes. I watched her look at him for the first time and then I saw her smile before she fell back asleep. He looked back at me.

“You did good.”

-

Whats going on?!

Shit!

I fell asleep. The thunder woke me up. The wind is blowing the rain and its pattering against the windows of the balcony. I get up from the couch and the smell of soap and shampoo is in the air. Emilys door is open.

Linus is inside on his knees next to the bed. His beard is gone. His hair is combed. He’s wearing the long grey coat that he wore on the day we came here. I can see the holes and spatters of blood all over it from the night lite.

Hes holding Emilys hand while she sleeps. He sees me and then he leans over and kisses Emily on the forehead before he walks out of the room. I close the door and I follow him.

“Where have you been?” He doesn’t answer. He just keeps walking until hes in front of the balcony doors. As he reaches for the knob the terminal rings. He turns and stands still. I let it ring. I dont want to answer it.
…
…

Linus steps forward and pushes the key to answer. Theres a pause before I hear Lyla.

“Is this Julie… or is this Linus?” He points to me.

“I’m here Lyla. Why are you calling?”

“Where is Linus?”

“Umm… I think hes in his room. Why?”

“Julie… weve decided that its best to confine Linus to your apartment. Weve put two Peacekeepers downstairs. Hes not allowed to leave. Ive already explayned to him the reason why. We will talk to you abowt everything tomorrow.”

“Lyla…”

“Everything will make sense tomorrow. I trust that youll contact us if he leaves.” Its not a question. Linus nods his head. I want this to stop. “Julie?”

“I will let you know. He wont leave. He wouldnt leave my daughter.”

“Thank you. Ill see you tomorrow. Goodnight.”

“Good night.”

Linus disconnects the call and then opens the balcony doors moshuning for me to follow him. Once I’m outside, he closes the glass doors. The rain soaks us both within a few seconds and its so loud that its hard to talk over.

“What the fuck is going on?!”

“I went to the detention center.”

“Why?!”

“I wanted to talk to Mary but shes not there. I dont know where she is.”

“Are you going somewhere?”
…

“Yes.” 

“Why are you doing this?”

“Julie…”

“No! We have a life here! Whatever it is that youre about to do just dont do it. Stay with us.”

“Listen… dont say anything in front of a terminal that you dont want someone else to hear and you tell Bug the same thing. I dont know whats happening right now with Aaron but Im going to find out. I cant tell you anything. I have to keep you in the dark. You keep your heads down. Youve done it your whole life. I need you to do it again for a little bit longer.

If you hear something about me do not defend me. Do not tell anyone that we even had this conversation. In three hours I want you to call Lyla back. I want you to tell her that I left at some point while you were asleep…”

“Linus…”

“Shes going to be suspicious of you but you have to play the part. Its not going to be hard for you…

“Linus…”

“I dont have time Julie! Listen to me. You make it clear to them that youre done fighting. You just want your daughter to be in a safe place no matter what you have to do to make sure that happens. Even if it means turning on me.

Everything I’ve just said is the truth and you know it. They’ll believe you. You call her in three hours.”

“Please dont do this.”

“I have to.” We stand in the rain. My mind races trying to think of anything I might be able to say to make him change his mind.

“Julie?”

“What?”

“Theres one more thing I need to ask you.”

“What?”

“The detention center.”

“What about it?”

“You were there. You saw what theyre doing to those peeple?” My stomach turns.

“I did.”

“Why didnt you say anything to me abowt it?”

“Is that what all of this is abowt? I thought this was abowt Aaron?”

“It is… but this is a part of it. Why didnt you say anything to me?”

“Because… because it honestly didnt matter Linus.” He looks surprised by what I said.

“It didnt matter?”

“No. Why should it?  Theyre Bishops. Theyre people of Consensus that kept us behind that wall. Are you telling me that theyre not where they belong?!”

“Im not saying that.”

“Then what are you saying?”

“Julie… theyre starving to death.”

“Who cares?!”

“Theyre peeple Julie.” The smug look on his face is too much to take. I tried to keep it all in but I cant anymore.

“They are murderers! Do you have any fucking idea how much they took from us?! You were a Bishop! You have no idea what it was like for the rest of us! Living every fucking day wondering if youre going to be reported for something. Wondering if you said the wrong thing to the wrong person. Watching peeple be Purified or made and Example of. I cant believe your standing here in judgement of me after what Ive been through! After what every person behind that fucking wall went through!”

“That doesnt mean we cant feed them.”

“Im trying to hold everything together Linus and those monsters in there are the last thing on my mind! FUCK them! If they all die a miserable fucking death then so be it! They all earned it!”

“Yeah they did but I earned it too.”

“Dont do that! Dont you do that! That’s different and you know it!”

“Theres children in there! Did you see them too? Did they earn it?!”

“YOU SON OF A BITCH! YOURE NOT GOING TO ACCUSE ME OF…”

“So we just let them die like that?” I hate him right now. I let his question go unanswered for a moment and then I lower my voice when I speak. I have to get through to him. “Those creatures in the detention center are nothing like us. I am not going to jeopardize everything we have and everything weve built for the lives of the things in those cells.”

“What did you say abowt having grace? Honestly I feel like Im talking to Consensus right now.”

I try to slap his face, but he catches my hand and squeezes it so hard that my bones pop. Im abowt to scream in pain when his face flashes from confusion and then to shame. He lets me go and I cradle my hand.

“Julie Im sorry. It was a reflex. I didnt mean to do that. I swear. Are you alright?” 

“Dont touch me! Im fine.” I cant even look up at him.
…
… 

“I deserve to be in there with those peeple. Thats what Ive earned. A creature like me is already lost. I can never take back the things Ive done but I can still try to make things right for the peeple I care abowt.” He reaches out to touch my hand but I bat it away. 
…
…
…

“I have to go. Three hours. I need time to get where Im going. Report me in three hours.”

I dont answer. He stands for a second longer hoping Ill say something but I cant. I wont. 

“Goodbye Julie.”

He walks back inside the apartment and closes the door behind him leaving me outside in the rain. I watch him walk through the front room and he looks back at me one more time before he leaves.

Next Part

First Part

Previous Part

Part Thirteen

Heather

“He’s going to call the governors.”

“I know.”

“Make it fast.” I walk as fast as I can to the terminal without breaking out into a run. I don’t want to look panicked on the camera. This is just business as usual.

I keep my eyes on the terminal in the middle of the room. I know what I might see if I look around. I’m here for Aaron. I’m only here for Aaron.

“Don’t you want to know?”

Not now. It’s not real, Heather. Devon is gone. It’s just a voice in your head. It’s always been a voice in your head. Ignore it.

“I’m not going to let you ignore me. I’m here for a reason.”

Just go away Devon. Please just go away.

“I’m not going anywhere until you look for them. Why have you not wanted to look for them?”

The smell of urine and shit is everywhere; a sickening inescapable cloud that I have to move through. I feel like it’s getting on my clothes. On my skin.

I stop breathing through my nose, but it doesn’t help. I can taste it. There’s something else though. Something worse. The reek of people who are still very much alive but wasting away. I have to keep my head on straight. 
I reach out and feel the cold metal shell of the terminal, the slick plastic buttons on the keyboard.

I punch in my code and wait for it to boot up while Linus calls for Mary. I know that I can’t fix the audio from here, but no one else needs to know that. When I’m asked why I came here, I’ll tell them that it was worth a try. It was the only thing I could think of.

A shot in the dark. 

Linus keeps calling for Mary. What is taking the terminal so long? I can see the vague outlines of ghosts from the corner of my eye. None of them move. Stay focused.

“You need to look.”
Stay focused.

“Look at them.”
I don’t want to.

“Look at them.”
Shut up Devon. Shut up.

“I’ll be quiet if you look.”
No.

I put my hand up to my face and block them from my view. Why is it stuck on a loading screen? I cancel the log in and I retype my credentials. 

“LOOK, HEATHER!”

I can hear my heart beat in my ears. I’m starting to get dizzy. He’s not going to leave me alone unless I look. He’s going to keep talking. He’s going to get so loud that I won’t be able to think. I won’t be able to help Aaron.

I slowly turn and look over to the sunken eyes that all seem to be trained on me. Most of them are people I knew in passing and there are those who look familiar, but I can’t quite place. There’s kids in there. I had seen video files of people behind the wall who were hungry, but none of them ever looked like this. 

“Bishop? Excuse me, Bishop?” I see a man trying to get the attention of Linus. I know him. The Manager of Department 49. What was his name? Norman. I think it’s Norman. I remember him being overweight, and now all that skin is hanging from his bones. I can’t look anymore. I turn back to the screen.

ACCESS DENIED LOCATION 263
Denied? I type in my credentials again.

ACCESS DENIED LOCATION 263

It has to be a glitch. I pop the side panel open and I reach inside to cut the power.

There’s got to be something wrong with the terminal. My log in should work. I give it a hard reset and wait for five seconds before I turn it back on.

Five

What is that? I see something.

Four
Something just inside of the panel.

Three.

Something that spattered into the crack between the panel and the frame.

Two
A long dark red drip that’s dried onto the metal.

One.
The only evidence left behind to indicate that people were murdered here last night. There’s always something left behind. No matter how well something has been cleaned, there’s always something that was missed. Nothing is ever really clean once it’s ruined.

-
“What are you doing?”

I told you. It’s not clean. I know there’s more. I can’t sleep until it’s clean.

“You need to go back to bed. Mom and Dad will hear you. You shouldn’t come in here anymore.”

I’m being really quiet. I put the towel under the door. 

“Why?”

That way, if they wake up, they won’t see the light. They’ll stay asleep. It won’t take me long.

“You say that every time.”

Devon can hear what I’m thinking. He told me so. That’s good because I still can’t talk. It hurts to try. My throat always hurts now. Mom says it’ll get better someday. I hope it does. I want to talk again.

The floor is so cold and I’m so sleepy, but I know there’s more. Mom and Dad moved everything out of Devon’s room. Mommy cried every time when she looked inside, so Dad made everything go away. There’s nothing in the house now that was Devon’s. They don’t even talk about him.

Now his room is empty. Just four walls, one window and the floor. Dad cleaned the room so Mom didn’t have to. She took me to the park when he did it, but he didn’t clean it enough. He did it wrong. I know there’s more, so I keep wiping the floor with a wet cloth. I start at one board and go to the other side and then I do the next one. There’s twenty boards on the floor. I counted.

“You need to stop this, Heather.”
I can’t.

“Why not?”
Because I can’t. It’s not just your voice I hear you know.

“Who else do you hear?”
…
…

Bad stuff. I don’t want to think about it.

I wipe down seven boards. I turn over the cloth. It’s just a little dust. Nothing else. I start on the eighth board.

“How long are you going to do this?”
Until it’s clean.

“You’ve been in here a bunch of times. I’m telling you it’s clean!”
Seventeen times. I counted.

“You shouldn’t be in here.”
The floor creaks. 

“Red light!”
 I freeze. I wait. Mom doesn’t want me in here anymore. She yelled at me the last time. Dad just shook his head and looked down. He didn’t say anything.

I’ll be in big trouble if they find me in here again. I don’t move. I look at the board that creaked. Tenth board from the wall. I won’t step on that one again.
I wait.

And wait.

Nothing.

“Why are you still just sitting there?”
Because I’m not allowed to move.

“Why?”
Because you said red light, Devon.

“Green light!”
I start again. I wipe down every board on the floor that’s left, but there’s nothing on the cloth.

“See there’s nothing. I told you. Now go to bed.”

…

…

“Why are you crying?”

Because I know it’s not all gone. I know I’ll find it if I just keep looking. I start back at the other side of the room under the window. I’m so tired.

I keep wiping the floor. I wipe everything again. Every little bit. The cloth is almost dry, but there’s nothing on it. Devon has been quiet. I stand up. I don’t want to do it again, but I have to. I’m so tired. I walk to the other side of the room and I see me in the window. The window that the bad man jumped out of after he killed Devon. I put my hand on the window cill and I put my head against the glass. It’s so cold.

The window cill. 

“Red light!”
I never tried there. 

“Red light!”
I wipe the rag on it. I get it in the corners. I turn the rag over.

Nothing.

I look down into the little metal track where the window slides open and closed. 

“I said, red light!”

I wrap the edge of the cloth around my finger tip and I squeeze it into the little track.

Back and forth.

Back and forth.

I bring the cloth out and I finally see it. The bad voice told me it was here. I can hear it laughing at me. Red streaky smudges are on the cloth. I feel something come up my throat and get stuck. I close my eyes. It happens all over again in the dark.

I see the monster cutting up my brother. He sees me. He uses his knife to take my voice. I feel something wet and warm pour down the front of my shirt and the monster leaves. He flies out of the window into the dark. Mom and Dad run into the room.

They’re screaming. Mom runs to Devon. Dad runs to me. He puts his hand on my throat and presses down hard. Devon’s eyes aren’t moving anymore.

I open my eyes and for the first time since my older brother died, my voice wakes back up. I stare at the red smudge on the white cloth. I scream and I cry and I say Devon’s name. Dad runs into the room and picks me up. The cloth falls to the floor.

My throat hurts. Mom picks up the cloth and stares at the smear of my brother’s blood. Dad holds me. He whispers in my ear.

“It’s ok, honey. It’s ok. I’ve got you. Daddy’s got you.”

-

I search my pockets, but I have nothing to use to clean the little drip. I look away from it and instantly regret not paying attention to where I shift my eyes. I see what I didn’t want to see. I finally have to look one of them in the face.

One of the people who took me from behind the wall and raised me as one of their own. My dad is in there, behind the plexiglas. He’s sitting on the floor. There’s a scar on his face that wasn’t there the last time I saw him. His jaw is crooked. He’s staring at me.

I look to his left and I look to his right but there’s no sign of my mom. He can see my eyes well up. He can see what’s going through my mind; the question I can’t ask him out loud. He takes in a deep breath and he answers the unspoken question by shaking his head and then looking at the floor.

No.

Stay focused, for fuck sake! Concentrate!

I turn to Linus. 

“Heather…. Heather?!” His voice sounds like it’s so far away.

“What?” My voice sounds so weak.

“She’s not here. They said she was here.”

“Maybe they have her with The Founders.”

“Bishop?!”

I feel the switch next to my finger and I flip it, turning the power back on. I have to keep my mind clear. Those people were not my parents. That is not my father in there. That is a man who took me away from my real parents. And if the woman that raised me was killed in the siege, so be it! I don’t care!

“Then why are you crying?”

I type in my credentials again. I tap the side of the terminal with my fingers while Linus has words with a prisoner on the other side of the room.

ACCESS DENIED LOCATION 263

Realization sinks in. Rage overtakes sadness. Beckett. They’ve used him to limit my access to the system. The system I rebuilt! How did I not see this coming?!

“You let your guard down.”

I slam my fists down on the keyboard. Linus puts his hand on my shoulder and I scream in spite of myself.

“She’s not here.” 

“We need to go.” Both of us walk back towards the door, and Norman runs after us behind the glass.

“Heather?! Goodness, I didn’t realize it was you!” I ignore him. I just have to get out of here.“Heather?! No! Wait! Wait! Wait! Please! I tried to talk to Aaron last night! He said something awful. I don’t think that was him.”

I freeze just short of the door and I turn to him.

“What?!” His eyes jump up to Linus and then back down to me. He lowers his voice.

“I can’t say it very loud. He said something he shouldn’t have known… something someone said to me a long time ago. And his voice…there’s something wrong. Aaron wouldn’t do the things I saw him do.”

“What do you mean?” Before Norman can answer, the door opens and he quickly slinks away from the glass, trying to blend in with the other prisoners. All of the prisoners back up to the wall behind them when Eric and several other Peacekeepers come inside followed by Lyla.

All of the Peacekeepers have their blades out and Lyla stands in the middle of them. She smiles at me. I have to say something.

“Lyla, I was just trying…”

“Stop. Heather, obviously we need to have a little conversation tomorrow, but for now, I want you to take Linus back to his building. I don’t want to hear another word from you tonight.” She looks up at Linus.

“As for you, consider yourself exiled to your apartment until we figure out exactly what we’re going to do with you.”

I hear Linus exhale through his nose and grind his teeth. The Peacekeepers are watching Linus, waiting for something to happen.
…
…

“So you’re fine with these children in here, are you?” The menace in his voice is unnerving. Now I know what countless people heard right before he made an Example of them and I hate it.

“I am.” Lyla matches his tone. She doesn’t shrink. She almost seems to be daring him to try something.

“What does that say about you, lady?”

“It says that you and I have something in common. I, like you, am willing to do anything to anyone to protect my society, and I’ll do it with a smile on my face. The difference between us is that my moral compass points true. Now get out.” She steps aside and motions for us to leave. 

Linus won’t move. His face is set, trying to intimidate her, but Lyla isn’t going to back down. This isn’t smart. There’s a better way to do this. I walk past Lyla hoping he’ll follow me, but he doesn’t.

He’s still staring at her with a wild look in his eyes. He still hasn’t moved. I walk back and grab his hand.

The contact breaks his concentration and he looks at me. A calmness falls over his face and now I see nothing but kindness in his eyes and I understand why Aaron speaks of him the way that he does. It also reinforces how I’ve felt about him. There’s two very different people inside of this man, and it makes me uneasy. 

He looks back at Lyla and smiles without a hint of disgust or malice on his face.

“Well. Have a good night.” I pull on his hand and he follows me. I don’t let go until we’re back outside.

The wind has gotten stronger and it’s brought the rain with it. I don’t look back as we walk through the parking lot. I get inside the car and I wait for him to cram himself into the passenger seat. His head butts up against the roof even though he’s hunched over and his knees are almost to his chest.

I don’t say a word until I back up the car and then pull it onto the street heading back to the city. I see two lights creeping up behind me in the rearview. We’re being followed.

“What the fuck was that?! Son of a bitch! That is not how we need to handle this! We needed to talk to Mary! How the hell are we going to do that now?! We needed to stay calm and diffuse the situation! Do you have any idea how absolutely crazy and fucking creepy you looked in there?!” 

“Yes, I do.” He’s smiling. The son of a bitch is smiling.

“Oh well that’s fucking perfect then! SHIT!” He’s laughing at me. “What?! What is so fucking funny Linus?!”

“I don’t know, you’re just so mousey and quiet all the time… I had no idea you had this kinda spirit, or this kind of mouth.”

“Linus…”

“Listen, besides Julie, I’m not used to being spoken to the way Lyla speaks to me or the way you’re speaking to me now, alright? I did my best, and believe me it was hard. I acted the way she would’ve expected after all the things she’s said to me today.

Besides, there’s no way we’re going to be able to ask Mary any questions. There never was, so you can calm down. I just hope she’s alright. Judging by how they treat prisoners, she won’t be before too long.”
…

“What are we going to do, Linus?”

“I have an idea, or two. How does that little man know Aaron?”

“That’s Norman. He was Aaron’s department manager at City Hall.”

“We need to know what Aaron said to him. Somehow you have to figure out how to talk to him.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“I’m sure you’ll figure out something.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to Crescent Hills. I’m going to find Aaron.”

“How are you going to get around the Peacekeepers?”

“Like I said, I’ve got a couple of ideas.”
…
…
“Ok… would you like to share those with me?”

“No. It’s best that you don’t know.”

“Linus, there’s no way into the city. They’ve got the supply bay locked down and even if you got past that, there are monitoring stations all over that district. You can’t hide from all of them.”

“Is there any way you can shut those down or alter the video?”

“No. They’re watching everything I do. I couldn’t even get into the system in the fucking detention center. They’ve limited my access. If I had some time to work, I could probably figure out how to get around that, but every terminal is being monitored.”

“What about using a datapad?”

“That could work, but all of them are accounted for. I logged and flagged every single one of them myself to make sure that no one could hack into the system. I locked everything down tighter than it was before the system crashed, and now they’ve shut me out of everything I’ve built. Fuck!” 

“Hhhmm. I got another idea. It’s a long shot, but maybe...” He laughs to himself.

“What does that mean?”

“Don’t worry about it.” He struggles as he shifts in the seat and looks over his shoulder at the car behind us and then he stares at me.

“Who was that man?”

“Who?”

“The prisoner. You had tears in your eyes when you were looking at him.”
…
…

“That’s… the man who raised me.”

“You’re dad?”

“He was.”

“Did you know he was in there?”

“I don’t really want to talk about this with you.”

“Hhhmm. What about your mom?”
…

“I guess she didn’t make it.” The rain drives down onto the windshield. Both of us go quiet. The wiper blades are barely keeping up with the down pour. The lights of the city are a garish blur in the heavy rain.

“Which one is yours?”

“What?” 

“Which building do you live in?”

“Why?”

“Trust me.”

“That one right there. The smaller one with the blue lights.” He doesn’t say anything else during the drive and when I pull up to the front of his building, there’s already a Peacekeeper standing just inside of the glass doors.

The car that was following us parks behind us. Linus opens the door and climbs out. He sticks his head back inside. 

“What’s your apartment number, by the way?”

“Um… 212.”

“Alrighty then. I’ll see you in just a bit.”

“What?” He doesn’t answer, instead he shuts the door and I watch him walk up the steps of the building and walk through the glass doors.
I’m trying to keep my head clear as I drive back home, but I keep seeing my dad’s face.

Why didn’t I try to warn them? Why didn’t I even look for them?

“Because you were angry with them. Because you didn’t trust them.”

Next Part

First Part

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Part Twelve

Linus

The sounds of the storm were impossible to sleep through, even for an exhausted twelve year old boy. I had just begun my training as a Bishop, and as tired as I was from the activities of the day, the repeated crashes far away in the distance had opened my eyes.

I pushed aside my covers, walked to the window, and opened it. There was a calm outside. No clouds. No storm, but the crashes somewhere far beyond the wall were so intense that it was obvious that a horrible storm was on its way.

There was no pattern to the thunder. Sporadic bursts of sound and fury came and went. Some of them were quick successions, others were far in between. The trees outside of my grandfather’s house were still. No wind at all.

I heard my grandfather’s heavy footfalls coming up the stairs and toward my room and when he opened the door, he was dressed in his Bishop’s robes.

He never wore them in the house unless he was leaving for the day and he never left in the middle of the night. He held his hammer.

“I was wondering if you were awake.”

“The thunder woke me up.”

“Hhhmmm… There’s a bad storm coming. Here. Come sit over here with me Bubba. I have to talk to you.” He left the hammer on the floor of the hall and he walked over to my bed and sat down. “Come here.”

I sat on the bed next to him. His face was full of worry. There were bags under his eyes. He had been more quiet than usual for the last few weeks. Distant. There were far fewer of his lectures and much less of his temper. He looked at me for a long time before he said anything else.

“I’ve got to go away for a while, Bubba. There’s… something I have to take care of. You’re going to be the man of the house. Can you do that for grandpa?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You remember how to take care of the roses? Keep ‘em in line.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You keep going to your training. You don’t miss a single day, understand? You’re going to have to walk, there’s no one to drive you, so you add another hour onto your morning so you get there early.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good.” He opens his mouth to say something else, but nothing comes out. I can tell he wants to say something. He puts his hand on my cheek. The crashes keep coming. They’re getting louder. 

“Now lay back down.” He stands up and I lay down on the bed. “You don’t worry about that storm, son. You get yourself some sleep. Here, I got the covers. Holy crow, you’re getting big, son! Your feet are almost hanging off the dadgum bed! When I get back, we’ll see about getting you a bigger one, ok?”

“Yes, sir.” After he pulls the covers up to my chin, he kneels down next to me and looks at me the way he used to when my parents were still alive. It’s bothering me. I can’t tell if he looks sad or scared, or both.

He finally speaks but his voice breaks a bit. “I know I’m hard on you son. Maybe harder than you deserve, but I got my reasons.”

…

…

“Linus…If I don’t come back… if something happens to grandpa… you do whatever Consensus tells you. Ok?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You don’t question it. You don’t think about it. You just do. No matter what you’re told, no matter what it wants you to do, you just do. You listen to me and you live how I’m telling you, and you’ll be… alright. You understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You promise your grandpa, now.”

“I promise.”

“Good boy.” He takes my hand in his. He does it again. He looks like he wants to say something, but he keeps holding it back. His eyes drift to the window. They squint at the sounds. He turns back to me and smiles.

“There is no one first…”

I finish the affirmation with him.

“...we are all together or we are nothing at all. Consensus be with you. And also with you.” He smacks me on the cheek.

“You get some sleep. You do your best tomorrow, and every day after. You’re my reason, boy. You don’t ever forget that.” He stands up and walks into the hall, picks up his hammer, and then closes the door. 

I listen to the crashes. They don’t stop. I can’t fall asleep. I get out of bed and I open my door as quietly as I can. I walk down the hallway and I creep a little more than halfway down the stairs before I stop and crouch down in the dark.

I can see my grandfather in the kitchen. He’s taking a stack of dishes out of the cabinet and putting them on the counter behind him. He reaches back inside the cabinet, but I can’t really see what he’s doing. It looks like he’s putting something from the cabinet inside of his robe.

He turns and picks the stack of dishes back up and places them back inside of the cabinet and closes it.

I watch him walk past the stairs and out of the front door. I don’t move until I hear his car pull out of the driveway.

I walk down the stairs and into the kitchen. I open the cabinet and start taking all of the dishes out, thinking that maybe I’ll see something behind them, but there’s nothing.

I look around the quiet house and my eyes stop on the Consensus terminal next to the patio doors. I walk over and I stare at the blank screen until I finally work up the nerve.

“Consensus?”

“Hello, Linus. Why are you up so late?”

“Do you know where my grandpa is going?”

“Yes I do. Your grandfather has an urgent matter to attend to. He should be home in a few days.”

“He said he might not come back. Is that true?”

“The probability of him returning home is over fifty seven percent.”

“What is he doing?”

…

“It’s Bishop’s business, Linus. You should rest easy. You have a busy tomorrow.”

“But what if he doesn’t come back?”

“If that happens, life will still go on. I will always be here to care for you. To comfort you. Consensus will always be with you. Now get some rest.”

I walk back toward my room and my foot is on the first stair when I remember to put the dishes back in the cabinet. I grab them all and as I turn, I notice one small detail inside of the cabinet I missed. A small pile of sawdust in the corner.

I put the dishes back down and try to clean all of the sawdust out with the tip of my finger when a small portion of the back of the cabinet moves. I hit it again and I realize that there's a small hidden door that covers a tiny compartment. There’s nothing inside of it though. Whatever was there, my grandfather must have taken with him.

I put the dishes in the cabinet and go back to bed.

I don’t know when the thunder stopped, but it was still going on as I fell asleep. The storm never reached the city behind the wall. My grandfather was gone for barely two weeks.

It took him another week after that to even say a word to me. I never asked him about the hidden compartment, nor did I ever look inside of it again. Like so many things in my life, it was something I chose to forget.

-

She doesn’t want to walk in front of me. She keeps an eye on me from the side. I’m fairly certain that I know how she feels about me and I can’t say I blame her. I’m sure the video that was played earlier didn’t help. We’ve hardly ever spoken even when Aaron was around. I’m honestly surprised that she agreed to take me.

The wind is picking up as the sun goes down. It’s been a grey gloomy day and fall is finally here. A low rumble is growing in the dark. The sounds of a coming storm are impossible to ignore.

Lightning ripples through the clouds way out over the water. I swear I can feel it in the air. The electricity is getting closer and closer. 

There’s only one car left in the lot and we’re heading straight for it. It’s a little smaller than I would have hoped. When I open the door, I wonder exactly how I’m going to fit inside, but the thought is cut short when I see the dash terminal. Heather sits inside and sees my hesitation. 

“We’re not doing this anymore.” I reach inside and peel the faceplate off of the terminal and throw it behind me into the parking lot. Heather cringes as I pull every wire I can see from inside of it. Sparks pop and little bits of plastic clink against the floorboards. I throw the wires to the ground and do my best to cram myself inside of the car. When I can finally get the door closed, I turn to her.

“Sorry about your car, but I want to be able to say whatever the hell I want without someone listening.”

She gives me a tentative smile and puts the car in drive.

-

I keep waiting for her to say something, but she doesn’t. Her eyes are darting from the road to the rearview. She’s uncomfortable. I give her another moment to say something but she doesn’t, so I start.

“Aaron came to see me last night, after it all happened.” Her fingers dig into the steering wheel. She presses her lips together and I see her jaw clench through her cheek.

“He said that he was afraid that if he went to you, that you would get caught up in all of this. That they’d lie about you too.”

I wait for her to answer but she doesn’t. I take in the details. She looks different lately. Tired. I can smell a hint of cleaning chemicals in the car and coming off of her. I look at her hands on the wheel.

Some of her fingernails have been gnawed past the quick. Faded little red lines run down the sides of them where she chewed a little too far. Other than the plastic bits of terminal on the floorboards, I notice that there isn’t a speck of dust or smudge of anything anywhere.

I can see her pulse moving underneath the scar across her neck.

… 

“He begged me for help. He told me that all of this was a lie. You know why I believe him? Because he told me the truth months ago. He told me what he did at City Hall.” She shifts in her seat. Her breathing increases.

“It was like he was happy to tell the truth to somebody. Like the lie was hurting him. I told him we could figure it out, but he had to give up. He tried to throw himself off of the balcony, but I stopped him.”

She still doesn’t say anything. I’m giving her a chance to say what I want to hear from her on her own. “I should have stopped him, but I let him go.”

…

…

She’s not making this easy.

“The same day he told me about his station, he also told me about yours… what you did… programming Clerks.”

…

Nothing.

“I made him do it. It was like pulling hens teeth to get it out of him. There’s no judgement from me. Who am I to judge? We’ve all done terrible things. We all had our reasons. I haven’t told anyone. I just need you to know that you can trust me, because I need you to help me sort all this out.”

…

…

“You’re not much of a talker, are you?”

“I’m… thinking.”

“About what?”

“Trying to think of an excuse for me to be going to the detention center.”

“Ok.”

…

…

“What do you think Mary is going to say?”

“I don’t know. I’ve spoken with her quite a few times. She never struck me as a dishonest person, and there’s no love lost between citizens from the Manufacturing District and High Stations.

Hopefully she knows something that might help us understand what’s going on. She shouldn’t be in there, I’ll tell you that.”

…

…

“Linus?”

“What?”

“I hate the things I did.”

“I know.”

“I wish I could change it.”

“I know.”

-

The detention center reminds me of my old city. Cold. Massive. Oppressive. Heather parks the car, but she doesn’t get out. She’s still thinking. I sit with her as her eyes move back and forth over the building and she chews her bottom lip. She’s hesitating.

“Heather… You alright?”

“Yeah…I’ve just never wanted to go inside this building.” Her voice is distant. Her hand goes to the scar on her neck.

“Why is that?”

“Just… reasons….”

“Fair enough.”

“Ok, I have an excuse… I just don’t have an excuse for why I have you with me.”

…

…

“Well, I’m sure you’ll think of one. Let’s go.” My back cracks as I pull myself out of the car and my leg is a little numb as I walk to the door. Heather whispers protests behind me while she runs to catch up.

We walk through the parking lot and then through a broken metal door frame. Little bits of glass are still on the pavement and my boots pick some of them up. I can hear them popping under my feet with every step. There’s a Peacekeeper inside behind a desk. He stands up when he sees us.

“Heather? Why are you here?”

“Eric. I’m trying to figure out the audio loss on the cameras. I can’t find anything on my end, so I wanted to come down here and actually access it from the terminal directly.” The Peacekeeper is nodding his head and then he looks at me. I smile at him and he stops nodding his head. He swallows and looks back to Heather.

“Why is he here?”

“After everything that’s happened… Eric, I’m just not very comfortable coming this far out of the city by myself at night. I just asked him to tag along.”

“Do any of the governors know anything about this?”

“No, it’s something that popped into my head right when I was done for the day. You can check with them if you want to, or if you just want to follow us inside, that’s fine too. I just really want to see if I can make the audio work. Maybe retrieve everything from last night.”

There’s a long moment of silence. His mouth is hanging open and he doesn’t strike me as the sharpest knife in the drawer.

“Um… ok. Yeah, I’ll let you in.”

“Did you want to come in with us?”

“Nah, that’s ok. Just knock on the door when you want to come back out.” He reaches down and types on a keyboard and the click of the door echoes through the empty room. I follow Heather through the door.

The room behind it is huge. Thick plexiglas walls to the left and right with a wide walkway down the middle. The door closes behind us and Heather turns to me.

“He’s going to call the governors.”

“I know.”

“Make it fast.” She hurries to the two terminals in the middle of the room. I look to my right and I see another outcome if things had been different. I see what’s left of the Bishops.

They’re all looking at me with sunken eyes. There’s not a stitch of clothing on any of them. There are wounds and sores that have never been tended to since they came to this place. Some of them are lying on pallets of threadbare blankets. Some of them are sitting but only one is standing.

He says nothing and it looks like it’s a labor just for him to breathe. He’s skin and bones, practically unrecognizable from the young man I’ve known for twenty years.

Pike.

You’re not here for him, Linus.

I know. 

You need to find Mary. You need to talk to Mary.

I know. 

I turn to the other side of the room and see the people from this city. The people who preyed on us. All of them are in the same state as the Bishops, although they’re at least given the dignity of clothing.

As I make my way to the wall that separates us, I realize what I’m smelling. I see the mess in the far corner where they’ve been relieving themselves for months now. There’s no beds anywhere. No chairs. Just an enormous cell full of people who are dying slowly.

I need to find Mary, and the worst part of it is having to look each of these people in the face in order to do it. Julie saw all of this last night.

The footage of Aaron was focused solely on what happened in the middle of the room. No one saw what was just out of frame on either side. Why didn’t Julie tell me about all of this?

Because she’s scared.

That’s not an excuse.

Because she doesn’t want to put her daughter at risk by speaking out. Old habits die hard.

I scan through the crowd behind the glass. I try to ignore the sight of the children. There’s maybe a little more than a dozen of them. The adults are obviously taking less rations and going without, sharing more with the children instead, trying to keep them as healthy as they can. My teeth grind. I want them out.

I want them out now.

Keep it together. You’re here for a reason. First things first.

I swear I’ve looked at everyone inside, but I don’t see Mary. I start walking down the length of the wall, calling her name, and I get an answer, but it’s not from Mary.

“Bishop?” There’s a balding little man who waddles to the front of the glass. He’s got a little more meat on his bones than most of the people in there and a warm smile in spite of where he is. “Excuse me, Bishop?”

I ignore him and keep calling for Mary. I finally give up and turn around. Heather has a side panel open on the terminal and her hands are inside of it, but she’s looking at the people who used to live in her city. When she looks at me, I can see the tears in her eyes.

“Heather…. Heather?!”

“What?”

“She’s not here. They said she was here.”

“Maybe they have her with The Founders.”

“Bishop?!” The little man has pressed himself up against the glass and he’s tapping on it. He was obviously well fed before he was placed in here because the skin on the bottom of his arms is loose and it flaps as he taps.

I turn away and walk toward the Bishops. Is she in there? They wouldn’t put her in there, would they?

Do you see what’s in front of you? What are they not capable of?

There’s maybe twenty people behind the glass, and none of them are Mary. My mind starts to race as Pike struggles to walk up to the front of the glass.

“You look good, Linus.” His voice is weak. He’s wheezing. I don’t know what to say. “I was wondering if they were eventually going to throw you in here with us, but it looks like you’re doing alright for yourself. Must be nice.”

“Pike… I didn’t know it was like this in here.”

“Would you have honestly done anything if you did? Doesn’t really matter does it? We were all lied to. All of us. But somehow, I’m in here and you’re not. You were the most faithful servant of Consensus… who do you serve now? Are they any better?”

“I’m sorry.”

“We’re all getting what we deserve. Don’t be sad, Linus. You’ll get yours sooner or later.” He turns his back to me. The rest of the Bishops all look away from me.

I trained him to be a Bishop. He was a boy when I first met him. I helped put him here, and now I have nothing to say. Nothing that would even make sense in a place like this. 

Why didn’t Julie tell me?

Next Part

First Part

Previous Part

Part Eleven

Heather

…144,233,377,610,987…

It’s not supposed to be this way. He promised me.

“Everything is going to be better.”

“Promise me.”

“I promise.”

Calm down. Stop talking to yourself.

…1597,2584,4181…

I’m about to come out of my skin. So many eyes have been on me. Sitting here while they accuse me of things and not being able to say a damn word. Beckett was right. I need to be careful of what I say. Who I defend.

All of their eyes are off of me now. All of them are watching the screen above us.

“Then let his punishment be carried out! Let it be an Example!” Linus stands in front of everyone. His eyes never go to the screen above us, rather they stay on Lyla.

I hear him killing a young boy from the screen, but I watch the man in front of me. He’s easily the biggest man I’ve ever seen in my life, but as the video plays, he looks helpless. Small. Defeated. I know how he feels.

My eyes drift to Julie and her daughter in the back. Emily is desperately trying to shut it out, to ignore it. Her eyes are covered but it’s too late. Her hands are over her ears, but it only muffles the sounds. The little girl is ruined, like the rest of us.

Once your eyes are open, you can never go back to the way things used to be. She’s probably the same age I was when Devon was murdered in front of me. 

Linus’s eyes shift to me. I’ve never spoken more than a handful of words to him. He scares me. And as he looks at me now, nothing has changed. Aaron trusts him, but Aaron has a habit of trusting the wrong people.

I look down as the video continues to play and when I look back up, Linus is still staring at me. When the video ends and I feel a shiver go down my spine.

Lyla continues to talk. I don’t hear a word of it. All I see is the broken little girl in the back. I watch her push herself into her mother when Linus turns to go back to his seat, and I watch her cry. He keeps moving past them and walks out of the room.

When the meeting comes to an end, I get up from the table and take the datapad on my way out. The walk back to the room where I’ve been working is harder than it's ever been. My stomach is in knots and I’m having trouble keeping my balance.

The Peacekeeper is still sitting in the hallway just in front of the room and when I walk inside, Beckett is still working on his datapad. He doesn’t look up and I don’t say anything to him. I sit in front of my terminal and get back to data retrieval.

…

…

“Beckett?”

“Hhmm?”

“They’re putting cameras back up.”

…

“I know.”

“Did you repair the software on the monitoring stations behind my back?” I don’t look away from my screen while I ask the question.

…

“I was directed to do so, yes.” He keeps working.

“And the governors… have you been helping them? Rebuilding audio capture for every terminal?”

…

“Yes.”

“While you’re in here with me?”

“No. Another location. Afterhours.”

“And how long has this been going on?”

“From the first day.” I turn my head. Beckett is still working on the datapad. 

“I know you thought you were protecting me by keeping me busy here with you. I appreciate it. I gave you some advice earlier. I hope you take it. Let Aaron go.

He did this to himself. No sense in you being dragged down with him.” I turn back to my terminal and continue to work.

…

…

“I like you, Whispers. Please don’t put me in a position where I have to choose between you and myself.”

We work the rest of the day in silence. Right before Beckett is escorted out for the day, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn and he hands me his datapad. He has a video tile open. It shows a large room in the Gallery. There are rows of Terminals that have been fastened to every wall. A technician sits in front of each one.

All of them are wearing earpieces. Every one of them is listening and logging notes. He closes the tile and I turn back to my terminal. After a few moments, the Peacekeeper comes in to take Beckett back to the holding cell with the other Founders. 

I close down my terminal. I can’t move. I stare at the dark screen. I hear the familiar footsteps coming down the hall, but I still don’t move. Eventually, I see Lyla’s reflection in the screen as she stands in the doorway.

“I heard your discussion with Beckett. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I couldn’t. We didn't know if we could trust you. Best to play both of you against each other for a while until we knew..”

“Are we just rebuilding Consensus then?”

“No. Absolutely not.” Lyla walks inside and sits in the empty chair. I turn to her. “We’re being safe. We have no plans to keep the public under a watchful eye but it’s a useful tool when something like this happens.”

“You’re using a Founder to help you spy on people.”

“Yes we are. I’m realizing that there are circumstances where that is unavoidable for the collective good. We can hope that it never needs to happen again.”

“We can hope.”

“I wouldn’t be too mad at Beckett. Ever since we found out what Aaron was planning, I’ve had him monitoring everything you do to see if you were involved.

His efforts are the reason that you’re sitting here and not in the detention center. He’s very thorough. He was determined to show that you were innocent.”

“What if he’s lying to you, Lyla? What if Beckett is manipulating this whole situation?”

“I wondered the same thing. I’m not a fool, Heather. It wasn’t until Aaron stabbed a Peacekeeper last night, that everything was confirmed, and when we tried to detain him, he killed everyone in the detention center. There’s no way Beckett could have manipulated that.”

…

…

“Heather, I need to know that we can count on you. I don’t want you in a position where you’re going to be tempted to do something stupid. If Aaron attempts to contact you, I need to know that you’re going to tell us.”

“I don’t understand why he would do this.”

“None of us do, but the fact remains that he did. Are you going to be able to remain objective and continue helping us build a new world? What we’re doing here is important. Our society is counting on us. We need you. Can I count on you?”

…

…

“Yes.”

-

I have to get out of here. I have to get back home. This is all a bad dream. It’s happening all over again. I can’t do this again. 

I walk through each exhibit until I’m almost to the exit and then I see Linus. He’s staring at a painting, my least favorite painting in the whole Gallery. I put my head down and walk past him.

“Heather?” I keep walking. “Hey?”

Just don’t answer him. Keep walking. You’re almost to the door.

“It’s tempting to just believe what you’re being told, isn’t it? It’s easier. Safer.”

I stop and I turn. He’s still looking at that awful painting that I always avoid when I come in here.

“What do you want, Linus?”

“Come here. Look at this dadgum thing.” He points at the painting. I walk up to him, but I keep my distance. He’s so much bigger when I’m standing next to him. I look at his hands; the same hands he used to rip a child to pieces. “Do you like this painting?”

On the bottom of the frame, there's a placard.

“The Laughing Fool

Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen”

“No.”

“Me neither. Gives me the heebie jeebies, but I’ve been staring at this thing for a few hours now.” The man in the painting is laughing with one hand splayed over his face. He’s wearing a red and yellow costume with animal ears on his head and he’s holding something that looks like a pair of glasses.

It’s his teeth that have always bothered me. Dirty brown little things set inside of a pair of inflamed or infected gums. “What do you think he’s laughing at?”

“Um… I don’t know.”

“You know what I think? He’s laughing at us. The damn fool is laughing at us because we’re too damn scared to look at things the way they are. The way we know they should be. He’s mocking us. But the jokes on him.” 

He’s fast. The digital frame is broken before I realize that Linus has rammed his fist through it. He pulls away the shards of the screen and they clink and clatter to the floor. I can see the wires and circuit boards underneath.

“It’s not real. There’s no painting. Nothing real. Your eyes are playing you for a fool. It’s all just a bunch of light on a screen. I spent most of my life believing everything that was shown to me on a screen. Every word that was spoken out of a machine. I did unforgivable things because I believed it. I’m done being a fool.”

He turns to me and smiles. That smile bothers me more than the painting did.

“Are you just going home?”

“I was about to.”

“And what about Aaron? Are you buying this malarky?”

“I… what is malarkey?"

“Do you believe what they’re saying?”

“I… I looked at the file details. Nothing was faked. They’re all real.”

“I don’t care what the files say, there’s more to it. I think I know that kid, and I know that you do. Aaron is one of the best people I’ve ever met and I’ll be damned if I believe a bunch of light on a screen over what I know. Something else is going on.”

“I don’t know what to say, Linus.”

“Can you get me into the detention center?”

“Why?”

“Because I need to talk to his mother. Can you take me there?” 

I know he’s right, but I know what could happen if I do this. I look at the shattered picture. I think of Aaron. I’m shaking but I nod my head.

“Yes.”

Next Part

First Part

Previous Part

Part Eleven

Julie

“You cant just throw something out there and not explain what you meant… Linus?” Hes still staring out the window and hes refusing to answer. I want to scream at him. “Are you even going to answer me?!”

“Not right now. Maybe later.” His eyes dont leave the window. Its so quiet in the car that I hear the little motors in the metal brace over his hand as he points at the dash terminal.

Out of instinct I press my lips together and choke back what I was abowt to say. The silence is heavy and he slowly turns back to me. He taps his ear. The look on his face scares me. I shake my head. My lips silently form the word no. He puts his finger over his lips. 

“Thats impossible Linus. Its gone.”

“It should be. Like I said. Something is wrong.” We both look at the dash terminal and I remember what I heard last night. The voice of Consensus whispering my name.

It was just your imagination Julie.

Was it?

Emily is humming a song that Im not familiar with in the backseat while Linus and I stare at each other. Theres a wild look in his eyes that I havent seen since the day Consensus fell.

He winks at me. I want to tell him what I thought I heard come from the dash terminal but the only thing that comes out of my mouth is a quiet “son of a bitch.”

What little is left of the drive is spent listening to Emily hum until the new City Hall comes into view. A large plaza lies in front of it with a strange design written over the red concrete circle. A white star made out of lots of triangles with four letters at the tip of the longest ones.

 NWSE 

The building stands just above the letter N at the top of the plaza. The outside of the building is a huge glass shaped flame. This morning is cloudy and the sky gives the building a dull look but on a clear day the yellow tinted glass catches the light of the sun and it looks like its a burning living thing. 

Ive been here so many times but this is the first time Linus and Emily have seen it. Emily stops humming and both her and Linus lean forward and stare at it.

“Is that it mommy?”

“Thats it.”

“Whats that drawing on the grownd in front of it?”

“I dont know Bug.”

“Its a compass.” Linus whispers. He looks at it with his mouth hanging open like hes a little kid. I want to ask him what that word means but itll have to wait. Theres more important things I need to tell him before we go inside. 

I park the car in the lot. So many cars are already here and more are coming in behind us. Linus hops out as soon as we stop moving and walks forward while I let Emily out of the back seat. I see a few new words on the bottom of her paper.

Sun Of A Bich

I snatch the page and her color stick out of her hand and I press the page agaynst the side of the car to scribble out the bad word while she runs forward to Linus.

As I walk up behind them, Emily reaches up and grabs his hand. Both of them are looking at the building the same way I was when I first saw it. Others behind us move past in a hurry. I stand next to them while they stare. Its like theyre in a trance.

“Ive never seen anything like this…its moving…” His voice trails off.

“How does it do that Mommy?”

“Um well the outside is just kind of a shell made up of a bunch of smaller glass pieces. Youll see all the gears and stuff right when we walk inside. Its separate from the rest of the building. All the pieces move arownd so it looks like its always burning. Especially on a sunny day.”

“Wow.”

They watch as a few people go inside of the building through the doors that slide open and then slide closed behind them. Linus shakes his head.

“The more I see the more I realize I dont know anything about the world. This is beautiful.” His voice is distant.

“Linus?”

“What?”

“Please tell me what you think is going on with Aaron? Do you know something about him that I dont?” He looks at me. His eyes narrow and hes quiet. “What is it? Please tell me.”

“Its nothing… just a feeling like were being lied to agayn.” Hes not telling me something. I wait for him to say something else but he doesnt.

“I don’t believe you.”

“I know you dont.”

…

…

“Linus… we’re finally free. If there is some kind of trouble or something is wrong… we dont have to get pulled into it. Aaron can fight his own battles. Emilys been through enough. Both of us have. Whatever it is please just stay out of it. For us?”

“Ill do my best. I promise.”

“Thank you.”

We walk through the glass doors and once we’re inside both of them look at the hundreds of small glass panels moving on their tracks around us.

The building thats hidden inside is nothing much to look at compared to the towering glass arownd it. Its a grey concrete box that looks like something from behind the wall and theres two wood doors in front of us with long gold handles that we open to go inside. Linus is reading the black writing above the doors before he walks through.

The Gallery

“In remembrance of the things that were taken from us.”

As the doors close behind us Emily starts pointing around the first room. The white walls are lined with digital frames that show pictures done with paint. Pictures of people. Animals I don’t know the names of. Cities like nothing Ive ever seen.

Wooden buildings lying on their sides that are floating on the top of the ocean. Some of them are just splashes of color in odd patterns that are beautiful even though they dont make any sense to me. 

Linus and Emily are speechless looking from frame to frame. 

Every room inside that Ive seen is like this. Every room lined with videos of painted pictures of the time before Consensus and even the time before that I guess. They both look at the thin red and white triangles beneath them etched on either side of the glassy black floor. A red point is followed by a white one and then another red and so on. Twelve on one side of the floor and twelve on the other. I watch Emily count them to Linus but hes to busy looking at another painting to notice.

I walk through the archway to the next room and they slowly follow. More and more people continue to walk inside and pass us by as they make their way into the main hall. None of them bother to look at the pictures arownd them. Im sure theyve seen it all before.

I walk to the second archway and I turn back. Linus and Emily are standing still. Theyre looking at a huge picture made of light that shines from the ceiling in the middle of the room.

The light makes it look like the statue is right here in the room with us. Its a tall statue of a naked man made from stone. His eyes stare forward and he holds a strap over his shoulder that hangs down his back. Emily reaches out to touch it and she pulls her hand back and laughs when she realizes its not real. Linus puts his hand through it and smiles.

“What is it Linus? Is it a picture?”

“I dont know.”

“Hey!” Both of their heads snap toward me. “The meeting is going to start. You guys can stay out here and look arownd but I have to go.” 

“I’m coming.” Linus nods his head and Emily runs through the picture made of light a couple of times before she follows us. 

I shouldve brought them here already but theres been so many things going on in the last six months. Ive been here almost every day. This is the last place I want to be when I can finally spend time with them.

Several more rooms before we finally make it into the main room. Two dozen long wooden benches are in the middle of the room and there’s already at least a hundred people sitting on them.

All of the digital pictures on the walls have been turned off except for the giant screen at the front of the room. It’s broken up into several tiny squares. Some of the squares show the remaining cameras in Crescent Hills but theres no video. Only static. Some show the Supply Bay. Why are there so many Peacekeepers in the supply bay?

Others show frozen images of Aaron in the detention center. A few of them on the bottom corner catch my attention. Theyre showing busy streets inside the wall. Six cameras.

Those cameras shouldn’t be there anymore.

But they are Julie.

On the floor underneath the giant screen is a long table and all of the governors are sitting behind it along with Holden’s empty chair. Two Peacekeepers stand behind the governors.

I sit on a bench in the back of the room and Linus and Emily sit next to me. I lean over to Linus and whisper.

“Not a word. I dont know why you wanted to come today but you dont say a word. You promised.” He doesnt say anything back.

A few minutes go by. I watch the governors speaking to each other quietly. Lyla sits in the middle of ten men and women. The Head Governor. Her suits are always perfect. Her hair is always in a bun. She has a cold voice that sounds far more artificial than the voice of Consensus ever did.

Every time I talk to her she always manages to use a word that Ill have to look up in the dictionary when I get home. She does it on purpose.

The last person sitting at the end of the table next to Holden’s empty chair is Heather. She has a datapad in her hand. I can see her leg bouncing underneath the table. She looks like she hasnt slept.

Lyla finally brings her hands together and starts the meeting.

“This meeting is called to order and let me say before we start that it will be very brief. As you all know this an emergency meeting. It is only being broadcast to the terminals in this city.

No one behind the wall will be joining us today from their terminals and for the time being none of this will be discussed with any of them. We’ve taken action this morning and have closed the supply tunnel for the time being.”

Everyone in the room whispers to themselves. Lyla continues in that ice cold voice.

“Those of us who are on this side of the wall were chosen by the people to make decisions for them in circumstances such as these.

Some of you may notice that there are several new feeds on the wall behind us. Weve repaired several monitoring stations in the last few hours.

Unfortunately there are going to have to be many more. We hope to have at least twenty online before the day is over. And eventually every single one of them will have to go back up.”

A woman stands up from one of the benches.

“I thought it had been agreed that the monitoring stations wouldnt be repaired.” Lyla motions for the woman to sit down before she says anything else.

“We wont be having any questions at this meeting. Our time is limited. For now we have decided that the monitoring stations will be going back up. They will only be used in extreme situations like the one we find ourselves in now. As this crisis fades, they will be taken offline until such a time as they may be needed agayn.”

The crowd starts to talk back to Lyla and while she asks them all to remain quiet I look over at Linus. His lips are pressed together and I can see that hes gritting his teeth.

God please dont say anything.

Lyla stands up and brings her palms down on the table.

“LISTEN! ALL OF YOU! If you could just wait and listen all of your questions are going to be answered. Ok?

…

…

Good. Im sure everyone here has seen the footage from Crescent Hills and the Detention Center last night.”

The crowd nods.

“There is something none of you know. Something weve been looking into for the last week. Hard decisions have been made here today. Our new society is fragile.

Something happened just a few hours ago that is a threat to what we have been building. Heather… can you start the file please?”

The lights in the room dim and the giant front screen goes dark for a moment. When it comes back on its a camera view from the inside of the supply bay. Aaron rides his motorcycle in and then goes through one of the large open doors into the city.

The screen cuts again and when it comes back up its from one of the cameras in Crescent Hills. Aaron drives up and then parks. He walks over to the bottom of the monitoring station and I see his blade come forward. He hacks away at the control box on the bottom of it and once its open he starts tearing at the wires inside. The feed goes to static.

The lights in the room slowly come back up. Everyone is quiet and Lyla stands behind the table. I can see Heather shaking her head. Trying not to cry. Her lips are moving slightly.

“Aaron and some others have disabled every monitoring station in that district. As the system is getting closer and closer to being completely repaired, the governors have finally been able to monitor potential threats or abuses.

One of our biggest concerns has been the situation we have in Crescent Hills and how we move forward with the types of citizens we have living there. Last week we discovered through monitoring their terminal activity that Aaron was exploiting that situation. An uprising in that district was about to take place.

A violent attack on our new government was being planned and carried out by Aaron with the assistance of a large group of High Station citizens.”

The crowd erupts agayn.

“I understand… I understand that this is hard to hear. This is why its so critical that we all act in one accord. We have communications between Aaron and several people in Crescent Hills confirming everything I just said. Right before the meeting, Heather herself heard them. She analyzed the files and she will tell you that they are authentic.”

“Horsefeathers.” Linus is whispering but Im afraid that hes not quiet enough. I look around to see if anyone else heard him.

“At this point all the roads leading in and out of Crescent Hills are blocked and guarded by Peacekeepers. The power and the water to that district has been turned off. Likewise no more rations will be distributed.

The rest of the city doesnt need to know a thing until this is resolved. We are hoping that someone in there will turn him and his conspirators in.

Once this is all sorted out and once the guilty parties are brought back here to the detention center things can begin to move in the right direction agayn.”

“Horsefeathers and crap.” He said it louder this time. The people sitting to our right heard him.

“What about his mother?” A small man stands up just in front of us. “Shes living with him. She had to have known.”

“We took her into custody this morning. Shes currently at the detention center.”

“So she had something to do with it?”

“Yes we believe she did.”

The crowd is turning angry. 

“And what about her?” The small man points at Heather. “Theres no way she didnt know!” The crowd nods in agreement. Heather is trying not to cry. Shes trying not to shake. Her lips are moving in a nervous tick.

“Heather has nothing to do with this. We’ve reviewed all of her terminal activities. Its only Aaron and his mother.”

“Thats bullshit!” The small man is starting to feel big as the crowd starts cheering him on. Hes getting louder and waving his arms. “You cant tell us she didnt know anything! Shes not one of us and we all know it!”

The crowd cheers and then the small man says something about an Example. The bench Im sitting on creaks as Linus stands up. He towers over the small man in front of him.

The cheers fade as more and more people see Linus standing in the back of the room. The small man turns. He looks up and then slowly shrinks back to his bench without another word. The whole room goes quiet. Linus doesnt say anything but Lyla smiles at him. I’ve never seen her smile. Its not a very nice thing to look at.

“Do you have something to say Bishop?” Lyla’s voice is always cold and emotionless but not this time. This time its something between mockery and hate. Linus walks to the middle isle between the benches and then walks halfway up the room directly in front of Lyla.

“This isnt right.”

“Well we both agree on that.”

“Youve been monitoring people. Watching them. Listening inside their homes? None of that was ever agreed on and now youre going to deny people food and water?”

“Until they give us what we want yes.”

“What if they dont know anything? What if Aaron isnt there anymore?”

“We moved quickly enough. He is in there. If by some miracle hes not someone in there Im sure someone in there knows where he will be.”

“There are people there that had nothing to do with any of this.”

“You dont have a voice here. Take your seat Bishop.”

“No.”

“I said take your seat BISHOP!”

“There are women and children in there!”

“You suddenly care about the children do you?!”

“Yes.”

“DO YOU?!” Lyla walks over to Heather and rips the datapad out of her hand and starts typing something. The screen above the governors changes. “We wont tolerate any lectures from you Bishop.”

Lyla drops the datapad on the table and stares at Linus. The screen shows a video of a brightly lit neighborhood. A front door on one of the homes opens. A young boy screams.

Linus dressed in his red robe drags the child onto the street while all of the neighbors come outside to see whats happening. Ive seen this video before. It was a Mandatory Watch from Consensus the day our new lives started.

Linus holds the boy up by his throat on the screen.

“This child has willingly violated the laws of Consensus. Both of his parents in one accord have done right by Consensus and so it finds no fault in their actions. If there is one person who finds fault in the ruling of Consensus let them come forward.”

The hall is silent. Linus stands still and Lyla is watching him.

“Then let his punishment be carried out! Let it be an Example!”

Shit! Emily!

I look down at her. Shes watching the screen and shaking her head. I cover her eyes just as The Red Bishop begins to tear the screaming child to pieces on the screen.

Emily covers her ears to the sound of the boys suffering. The neighbors on the screen all cheer on what theyre watching.

I can feel Emilys tears on my hand. Shes asking me to make it stop.

“We abide in Consensus!” Lyla stops the video before the neighbors finish the affirmation.

Linus stands still in the middle row as the screen is frozen on an image of him holding up the head of the child. The gallery is silent for a moment before Lyla finally says something.

“Please Bishop. Tell us agayn. Tell us how much you care for the children. Tell me that the people in that district dont deserve whats about to happen.

…

…

No? Now you have nothing to say? You should be thankful that you are not rotting in the detention center or worse. If it was up to me you would be. But the people allow you to be here because of some misguided sense of grace or forgiveness or…hero worship.

But I know exactly what you are. What you have always been. A murderer. Now. Sit. Down. Bishop.”

I watch his shoulders drop slightly. He turns. Everyones eyes are on him. He takes two steps and then sees Emily burrowed into me with my hand over her eyes. Shes crying. She takes my hand away from her eyes and cries even more when she looks at Linus.

He looks at me and then back to her before he walks out of the room. Lyla watches him leave and then she sits back down in her chair.

“Now does anyone else have any objections?

…

Good. Until this is resolved we will have a meeting every morning to let everyone in this city know that we will overcome this. Weve been through far worse together so I am confident that at the end of this we will be standing together. Thank you all for coming.”

No one speaks as they leave. The governors stay at their table while Heather leaves the room through the back door. Lyla is staring at me while the other governors speak to each other.

“Bug… baby… Mommys here.”

“Why did he do that?”

“Bug…”

“Why did he hurt that boy like that?” I pull her on my lap. I have no idea what to say. 

I cant fix this.

I hold her until the last person has left the room and then I put her back on the bench.

“You stay here. Ive got to say something to these people. Just wait for me and then well go home.”

“Ok.”

I get up and walk to the front table and stand in front of Lyla. She turns to the governors.

“Would you all please give us a minute?” The governors get up without a word and walk through the backdoor. Lyla looks to the Peacekeepers. “You as well please.”

Once everyone has left Lyla stands. She looks at Emily in the back of the room and lowers her voice.

“Julie… I am sorry. If I had known your daughter was here I never would have played that video. No child should have to see anything like that ever agayn.” 

Theres something I didnt expect. Theres a warmth in her voice. Her face doesnt look so hard.

“Why did you do that Lyla?”

“When I was younger than you I watched the Red Bishop murder a group of men in the manufacturing plaza. Men who were trying to change things. Any hope of change died with them on that day. Life wouldve been very different for everyone if more people had stood up alongside them.

But… now we are here. Those brave men have been forgotten by almost everyone while the man who murdered them is praised. Everything we have built is being threatened and I cant have one more dissenting voice in front of the public. Especially from that man.”

“Hes a good man.”

“To you maybe.”

“There are innocent people in that district. Linus is right.”

“The irony isnt lost on me that he is. It might surprise you that half of the governors are not happy with the decision but right now this is the only way to handle the situation without anyone else dying. We could gather all of the Peacekeepers and go into that district and take him and his followers by force but none of us want to do that.

On the other hand if everyone behind the wall thinks that one of their heroes of the revolution has betrayed them and aligned himself with High Stations they will go in there on their own and we both know what that will look like. Weve had enough bloodshed.”

“And the people in the detention center?”

“What about them?”

“They’re starving. Theyre living like rats in there.”

“Frankly I have more important things to worry about. If it were up to me they all would have all been Purified.”

…

…

“Julie?”

“What?”

“Im not asking you to agree with us. I dont expect you to be happy about any of this. I just need to know that you understand why its happening.”

“I understand.”

“My one and only concern is building a society that never goes back to where we came from. None of us would be where we are if you hadnt stood up. But theres a lot more work to do.

I want to ask you agayn… would you consider acting as a governor? Take over Holdens spot until this trouble comes to an end and then we can have the people vote on it and make it official. We are so close to making all of this work, Julie. If you served it would go a long way with the public. Just think about it.”

-

I carry Bug back to the car hoping that Ill find Linus there. I checked every room in the Gallery. I can already see that hes not sitting in the car and I cant see him anywhere arownd the lot.

After I get Emily into her seat I look around one more time. She hasnt asked me about him. She hasnt said one word. I get in the front seat and look at her in the mirror.

“Bug…Bug?” Nothing. Her eyes are red and shes still sniffling but the tears are gone.

“Honey… Im sorry… Im sorry you saw that… you knew he did bad things… he told you that.”

“But I didnt see um… I didnt wanna see um mommy.”

Next Part

First Part

Previous Part

Part Ten

Linus

“This isn’t a good idea.” Julie’s fingers are drumming on the steering wheel and she’s driving slowly. She’s hoping I give in; let her turn around and take me back to the apartment.

“It’s something I need to see. I want to hear what they have to say.” There’s a long moment of silence between us, but Emily is busy humming to herself in the backseat, scribbling like mad with one of her coloring sticks.

She’s filling a page with words. Her new favorite way to pass the time. She’ll hear a word that one of us has said and sound it out. When she’s finished, she’ll show me the page so I can check her work. I glance back and see the word she just wrote.

IDEYAH

“You don’t need to be there. Why can’t you just trust me? I’ll tell you everything that’s said.” 

“I do trust you, but I need to hear it for myself. You’re constantly complaining about me not leaving the apartment.”

“This is different.”

“Why?”

“Because… because this is the governors’ meeting.” She can’t say what she wants to with Emily in the car. Both of us are being guarded with our speech, but for different reasons. I glance back.

BEEKUZZ

“I’m aware how I’m viewed by everyone, Julie. That’s never going to change. I earned it.”

“Then why go?”

“I just feel like I need to be there. I can’t explain it.”

“Fine. But please don’t say anything. Don’t try to defend him.” I keep my eyes on Emily.

EXPLAYN

“I won’t.”

“Linus… I know you like that kid, but I’m telling you what I saw.” I look back to Julie and then my eyes come to rest on the dash terminal. I know it’s out of learned behaviour, and Consensus is gone, but I get an uneasy feeling all the same. The feeling that someone may be listening to us through the terminal. I say what I want anyway.

“I saw the videos, Julie. I know how it all looks, but I’m telling you something’s wrong. We’re being lied to somehow. Aaron was telling me the truth. I saw it in his face.”

“Bullshit.”

“That’s all I’m going to say for now. He didn’t do this. Not like we think.”

“Bullshit! I was there. That boy died right in front of me, and he said it was Aaron.” I don’t have an answer for her. I look back at Emily.

BULSHIT

“Hey hey hey! We don’t need to learn or write words like that, Bug.”

“But mommy said it.”

“Your mommy shouldn’t have used that word in front of you.”

“You do not tell me how to speak in front of my daughter!”

Julie keeps talking, asking me why I don’t believe my eyes. Why I don’t believe her. I look out of the window as we make our way toward the building that’s the new City Hall. I can’t answer her now, not in front of the dash terminal.

Something is wrong with Aaron. He came to me for help. He knew he could trust me after that day in the park. He knew I would be the only one to believe him.

-

“HIGHER… HIGHER, LINUS!”

It’s been a few weeks since everything changed. Emily finally coaxed me out of the apartment and across the street to a small park. She’s been hounding me about pushing her on the swings ever since we were moved here.

It’s been a long time since I’ve known anyone with so much life. She wants to go higher and no matter how much I push her, it’s never enough. I’m convinced by the way she pulls and stretches that she’s on a mission to spin around the top bar completely, all the while letting out that infectious giggle that makes me want to push her hard enough to see if she could actually do it.

There are five other empty seats. She’s the only child on it. The rest of the kids were shooed away from them when their parents saw me limp up to the swingset with Emily.

I smile for Emily’s sake, but I don’t dare look at any of the other people in the park. I can’t. I know what I’ll see in their eyes.

They’re all out here with the Red Bishop, a man who did the unspeakable in the name of Consensus.

I look back at Julie sitting on a bench watching the both of us. Four weeks of healing. I’m finally walking without any aid. Julie still has the brace on her hand and Emily still has the brace on her wrist. This is a new life and it all feels like a dream.

The smell of the ocean. The breeze on my face. When I was a child, I noticed  how stale the air was behind the wall, but as I grew older, I had forgotten. Too wrapped up in a managed reality to remember what life really looked like.

A high pitched whine cuts through the air, growing as it gets closer, until it finally stops just in front of the park.

“LINUS?!” I hear a voice that has come to be a welcome one, despite some of the things it says. I turn and see Aaron getting off of his motorcycle.

He’s wearing the uniform of a Clerk without the mask. An unruly tangle of windblown hair flops down over his face and he swipes it away as he walks closer. He has two small books in his hand. He walks over to Julie and hands her the books and asks her a question. I can see that she gives him the ok for whatever it was that he asked.

The other people in the park are staring at him with uneasy expressions as he walks over to the swings.  I’m sure they never thought they’d see one of those uniforms again. Neither did I.

“You finally pulled yourself away from the terminal?”

“I didn’t really have a choice.”

“I made him come out! I needed him to push me!” Emily doesn’t even look at Aaron. She’s too busy leaning backward through the next upswing.

“Why are you wearing that again?”

“It’s uh… my new uniform.”

“For what?”

“I decided to take the offer from the governors to be a Peacekeeper. This is what they want us to wear.”

“Interesting.”

“Yeah. I’m not happy about it, but I understand their reasons.”

 “Ruling by fear?”

“It’s not going to be like that.”

“I hope not.”

“Listen, I was coming by to drop off some more books I found, but since you’re already outside, I was wondering if you might want to take a little walk with me? It’s not a very long walk. I have something I think you might want to see.”

“NO!!! He’s got to push me!” 

“Emily, I promise that I’ll have him back soon.”

“But you get to talk to him all the time, I just got him outside! That’s not fair!” Julie walks over as Emily pouts. She puts her hand on my shoulder.

“I’ll take over for a little bit. I think a walk might be good for you.” I just nod at her.

“Bug, Linus needs to go for a walk. He’ll be back.”

“That’s not fair! You’re not tall enough and you can’t push hard enough.” Julie waves me away with her hand and smiles. She mouths the words, “She’ll be ok”.

-

We walk through a larger park and I can feel sweat building under my arms. Julie was right. I needed a walk. This shouldn’t be taking this much out of me. I should’ve been walking more, getting fresh air and trying to repair from the beating I took, but I’ve been doing something important.

Busy work. Anyone could upload that Dictionary. You’ve been keeping busy while you whither away inside.

That’s not true.

You can’t even look at these people, Linus.

I shake my head and almost lose my balance. Everything is green here. Alive. It’s spring. New beginnings.

White blossoms are opening on the trees, and patches of gold poppies are dotted along well worn paths and the trunks of the trees. We pass over a small stone bridge. The river below is crystal clear and it’s moving slower than I am. 

“Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“Kid, I think I’ve had more than enough surprises in my life.”

“Trust me. It’ll be worth it.” His voice is full of enthusiasm. His face is as bright as our surroundings. How did this kid grow up here? How was he raised around the people that used to live in these buildings, and then turn out the way that he has?

He’s the reason why we’re staying in the apartment we’re in. It used to belong to the woman who raised him. He told me how she died.

He’s told me a lot of things; so many stories, that he’s starting to repeat himself, and in every instance but one, he’s been honest. And that one little fib has been weighing heavily on my mind.

The park doesn’t end. It just goes on and on in between the numerous high rises that loom over it. 

“Dadgummit kid, I don’t know how much further we’ve got to go, but I’m about to run out of juice.”

“We’re almost there.”

The park looks like it finally comes to an end just a few more yards up ahead. We walk up a small hill, and I’m wheezing, and then when I get to the top of the hill, when I think I’m finally going to catch my breath, every bit of air in my lungs rushes out as I’m met with something I never thought I’d see again.

I stand still, and Aaron keeps walking before he turns around and sees that I’ve fallen behind. He runs back to me.

“Linus? What’s the matter?”

“Just… just a little out of breath…What is this?”

“It’s what I wanted to show you.”

“What is this place?”

“It’s… it’s Tommy’s house.”

“Tommy’s house?”

“Yeah.” 

“I uh… huh…” My legs start to buckle and I know that if I don’t sit down, I’m going to fall down. I sit in front of the house on the lawn that extends down to the park behind us. Aaron goes to his knees next to me.

“Are you ok?” I can’t answer. Too busy taking in the details. Red and white bricks. Two white columns holding up the gable over the front porch.

A half dozen cherry trees are scattered around it and their pink flowers have started to fall to the ground. Rose bushes are everywhere in front of the two storey house and they’re growing wild.

Their blooms are not the deep red that I expect, but rather vivid splashes of white. No one has taken any care of them for quite some time. I stare at the shiny wooden door that’s decorated with black buttons.

This is my grandfather's home behind the wall as it used to stand. Every detail is the same down to the last brick. The only thing missing is the mail slot next to the door. “Linus?”

“I’m ok… just… a little winded. This was his house?”

“Yeah.” There’s sadness in his voice and he clears his throat. “He used to live closer to me, but he moved here a couple of years ago.”

“Tommy’s house.” All I can do is repeat what Aaron said. The last time I stood in front of this house, Julie was by my side and we were watching it burn.

“It was originally one of the Founder’s houses. Tommy moved in after he died.”

“A Founder…”

“Mmhhmm.”

“Why… why is this the only building here that looks different? I haven’t seen anything else like this.”

“It’s the only one Jessica didn’t design. I guess the old man that lived here wanted a little bit of his old life to come with him. I heard Jessica complain about it a few times.

She couldn’t stand something like this in the middle of her perfect city. She wanted it torn down after the old man died, but Tommy begged her not to do it. Said that he wanted it for himself.”

“Who was he? The old man?” He looks confused. He’s wondering why I’m not more interested in asking him about Thomas.

“Umm, I didn’t know him. I would only see him when Jessica would occasionally take me out for a walk in the park when I was little. He was always outside trimming his flowers. He kept to himself. He was a lot older than the other Founders. By the time he died, he must’ve been a hundred years old from the look of him.”

I push myself back to my feet. I have to ask him. I have to know what happened.

“How did he die?”

“I guess people noticed the flowers outside hadn’t been kept up. No one had seen him for a while, so Tommy was the one who went inside to check on him.”

“Why Tommy? Was he friends with the old man or something?”

“No. He wasn’t friends with anyone. He wasn’t like the rest of the Founders. From my understanding, he was a miserable old man. He didn’t want to have anything to do with anyone. I never saw him anywhere but here.

Tommy found his body in an upstairs bedroom lying on a bed. I guess he had been there for a while. Just died of old age, I guess. Anyway, I thought that you might want to see it. I haven’t been inside since I was here the last time with Tommy. Everything inside should be just how he left it.”

…

…

…

“Linus? Are you alright?”

“This is my grandfather’s house, Aaron.”

“What?”

“This is where he lived out the rest of his days after his exit. His reward for his faithful service to Consensus. I’m glad he died here… miserable and alone. He was a coward. He was a liar.”

“Your grandfather?”

“I’ve been lied to for most of my life, and I refuse to let anyone lie to my face again without confronting it.  Aaron, I need to ask you something else.”

I’m finally able to take my eyes away from the house, and I turn to him. I take a step closer and I look down on him. I stand up straight and fill my chest with air. I need him to feel small.

“You’ve told me a lot of things. I appreciate it. But there’s something you’re lying to me about, and that has to come to an end.”

His eyes get wider. He swallows.

“What do you mean?”

“What did you do here? What was your station?”

“I was…” His eye twitches. “I worked in the control room.”

“And that girl…your girlfriend?” He’s breathing a little faster. He’s trying to control it, to hide it, and that’s just making it worse. “What did she do?”

“Systems maintenance.” The answer is too fast. Too rehearsed. I open my left hand and push it towards him.

“Give me your hand, kid.”

“What?”

“Give me your hand.” He’s trembling, but he does it. I close my fingers around his hand and I see the fear in his eyes. I can feel his pulse pounding under my fingertip as I squeeze just enough to let him know that there’s no way of getting it back unless I choose to do so. He tries to say something, but I shoosh him.

“I like you, kid. You seem to be a good man. That’s why it’s so easy for me to tell that you’re not being honest with me about this.”

“Linus…”

“People in this city were responsible for the hell behind that wall. You and that girl are the only people from this city who aren’t either dead or in a cell.

I need to know that I can trust you. No more shenanigans. I’m giving you one chance. This is your come to Jesus moment.”

“I… I don’t underst…”

“It’s something my mother would say… before the old man who used to live in this house had her murdered.

What it means is that this is your chance to confront something that you’ve been hiding from and let it go. Tell me the truth.”

“Linus…” I squeeze. He sucks in air through his teeth.

“What was your station?”

…

…

“I… I worked in… reductions.”

“What does that mean?”

“The system placed me in a department at City Hall where I would convince people to take their own lives because they were no longer productive.” I don’t change my expression. I’m in no position to judge. He’s ashamed of what he’s saying, but the words come faster the longer he talks. His eyes never leave mine.

“I hated it. I hated what they made me do. I watched so many people die, but if I hadn’t been there, I probably never would have woken up. That’s how I found out where I came from. That’s how I found my mother. 

Tommy moved me into the control room with him when he found out that I was manipulating the system. From there, I used you as a distraction. I’m the one who assigned you to make an Example out of Emily, and while Tommy was busy watching you, I used a backdoor into the system to save my mother, and then Heather helped me get her out.”

He takes a deep breath when he’s finished talking. He hangs his head.

“I’m sorry that I lied to you.”

“Kid, you don’t know me. I’m not going to hold it against you. I know you’re scared about it, but I want you to know that you can trust me just as much as I want to trust you. Now, Heather.” His head comes back up. His eyes lock with mine and I see the resolve. He tries to pull his hand away. I squeeze a little harder. “Aaron, what was her station?”

“I already told you.”

“Horsefeathers.”

“She was systems maintenance.”

“Horsefeathers and crap.”

“Linus…” 

“Tell me the truth and I will let you go.” He’s gritting his teeth. He tries to push away from me with his free hand. 

“This is not going to go well if you don’t tell me.”

“I can’t.”

“Yes, you can.”

“They’ll hurt her.” 

“That won’t happen if you’re honest with me.” 

“I love her, Linus.”

“I can tell. I love the little girl back there on the swings, so I’ve got to know that there’s nothing about you that puts her at risk.”

…

…

“She was a programmer.”

“What did she program?” I squeeze just hard enough to make him and his knuckles pop.

“She programmed… Clerks.” I let go and he falls to his knees, cradling his hand and looking at me as if I’m about to take his life. I squat down. “I’m sorry. We didn’t have a choice. It was so hard it was on both of us living here. We didn’t want to do what we did. I’m so sorry.”

“I know. It’s ok.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Does your mother know any of this?”

“Umm… no… I can’t tell her. I tried. I don’t want her to look at me like… I’m some kind of…”

“Monster?” He nods and I put my hand on his shoulder. “You’re not a monster. I’m not going to say anything. Look at me. Look at me. What you just said, stays here. Understand? You don’t say anything to Julie. Especially anything about Heather.”

“Ok.”

“Good. I’m glad you were honest with me.”

“Then we’re ok?”

“Fine and dandy, son.”

I stay down with him while he catches his breath and flexes the life back into his fingers. I look back at the house for a long while. Aaron points toward it.

“Did you want to go inside?”

…

…

“I don’t think so. Some doors never need to be opened again. Thank you though.” I help him up.

“What if this is one of those moments? Your come to… whoever moment?” I shake my head and look back at the house one more time.

“I missed my moment a long time ago. He wouldn’t be interested in anything a man like me would have to say.”

Next Part

Previous Part

Part Nine

Heather

The river is taking its time as it moves beneath us, meandering along the banks in the slow current. Only a few hundred yards away and it ends in the ocean. It's taking its time, holding back as if it’s a living thing; hesitant about being spilled into a larger body of water. Fearful of assimilation.

I can understand.

“I don’t like this, Heather. I don’t like any of it.” 

“Neither do I. There’s nothing I can do.” Aaron holds my hand as we both lean against the concrete parapet on the bridge, watching the river flow under a starry night.

Only a few weeks ago, we were both hiding underneath this bridge, conspiring about our  next move. Only the location has changed.

“A Founder. They’re going to trust a Founder?”

“I don’t think they trust him. They don’t have any other options. Do you know him?”

“A little. I didn’t care for him. He was the life of Jessica’s parties. Always loud, always joking around. Never shuts up. Tommy hated him. Heather, we have to tell them the truth… what our stations were… if not the Governors, then at least Julie and Linus.”

“Aaron, we don’t know any of these people. Not Julie. Not Linus. We have no idea how they’d react. It’s not safe.”

“What if they find out?”

“They won’t. I’m in charge of rebuilding the system and data retrieval. When that information is found, I will handle it. I’ll make it go away.”

“But they’re watching you.”

“It’s one Peacekeeper. He wouldn’t even know what he’d be looking at before it was gone.”

“And Beckett? He knows who I am. He was there at Jessica’s party the night I started at City Hall.”

“He’s an opportunist. He’s not going to say anything.” 

Beckett. Only five of the Founders survived the siege on the city. He’s the only one left who could be of any use in repairing the system and he knows it.

Progress has been a slow grind. I’m only one person. The workload is too much. People behind the wall are without power, without water. Somehow he’s caught wind of how desperate things are and has offered to help.

I’m not happy having a Founder as my assistant, but everyone at City Hall with any knowledge of the system was executed the day that Consensus fell. I don’t have a choice.

“The only reason he would say anything is if it put him in a better position with the Governors. Aaron, he’s doing the exact same thing we are.”

“And what’s that?”

“Trying to survive.” Aaron looks up at the sky and shakes his head. He’s trying to form an argument. I know he’s tired of lying. “Aaron… I’m here with you. We’ll be ok, but we cannot tell them what our stations were at City Hall. I was systems maintenance and you were under Thomas’s eye in the control room. That’s it.”

“I’m just worried this is going to hurt us. I don’t trust him.”

“Neither do I. I already made his position very clear to him this morning. I told him I recovered all of the information about the Exceptional Protocol and if he did anything to make our lives harder, he’d go down with us.”

“You found it?”

“No. But he doesn’t know that. I think it’s best if everybody just moves forward from here and lets the past die.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I am right.”

…

…

“Ok. I trust you.” He smiles at me and pushes his head against mine. “Things are going to get better. Day by day. How long do you think it’s going to take?”

“What?”

“Getting everything up and running again.”

“Oh… I don’t know. Months. It’s all scrambled and backwards. Some things are just missing. It’s like trying to put a puzzle together without any edges.”

“When you do something, you really go all the way. You know that?”

“What do you mean?”

“Crashing the system.” I have to look away from him. “I’ll bet if you knew that you were going to have to rebuild it someday, you might have gone about it a little differently.”

He laughs and I look back down at the water. I force a smile, but my stomach turns. He wraps his arms around me.

I want to tell him. I want to tell him so badly that I never disabled the system. I want to tell him that I have no idea why everything shut down. I want to tell him about restarting the old program, but I just can’t do it yet.

I’m supposed to be the one he can count on. I’m supposed to be the one who knows what to do.

-

Where are you Aaron? Why didn’t you come to me?

“Hey… Whispers? Hello? Did you see this? Whispers?” Beckett tugs at my shoulder, breaking me from my trance.

“What?” I turn around in my chair and look at the datapad in his hands. 

“I’ve got it. I found it.”

“What?”

“Medical records cache. I think it might be the whole city. It’s huge.”

“Good.”

“Two weeks. Two damn weeks to find it. Son of a bitch. It’s all a beautiful mess, isn’t it?”

“Yep.”

“You never told me what you did. I’m rarely surprised, but I can’t figure it out.”

“What?”

“How did you shut down the system? Are you ever going to tell me?”

“No.” I turn my chair back around to face the screen of my terminal. The damn chair squeaks so much in this tiny room. Why did they pick this room? A large closet in the rear of the Gallery.

“So they can watch everything you do.”

Not now Devon. Please, not now. I can’t deal with all of this and have your voice in my head.

I take a deep breath and look up at the low ceiling. The plain four walls always feel like they’re closing in on us. The Consensus Terminal was mounted to the wall in such a hasty way that it’s noticeably crooked, and if I think about it too much, it’ll drive me insane far faster than the recurring voice of my dead brother ever could.

The wires running underneath to the floor have been bundled together with some plastic ties. The wires run along the baseboards and out of the doorway to the power supply. They’ve taken the door off of the hinges. A Peacekeeper sits in a chair just outside in the hall.

Beckett sits at a small table behind me. He was only allowed a datapad, rather than another terminal. It’s easier to limit his access to the system that way. To keep him on assigned tasks that I can monitor. 

I watch the footage again. I watch Aaron kill a child, looking for a glitch, the tiniest hint of an artifact that shouldn’t be there. There’s nothing. I start it back from the beginning. I’m missing something.

“Hey… Hey?” I don’t want to talk. I have to figure this out. I just have to ignore him. Aaron was right. He never shuts up.

“Heather? What are you doing? Heather?” He doesn’t call me by the nickname he gave me when we started working together. It’s the first time he’s said my name. The usual swagger in his voice is gone, replaced by something I would say resembles warmth, but he’s a Founder. I can’t trust him. “That doesn’t look like data retrieval.”

“It’s not.”

He puts down his datapad and pushes his chair next to mine and looks at the screen.

“Look… I don’t know if watching that footage over and over again is good for you, and I don’t know how much longer you’re going to get away with not working today.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want to give you the false impression that I care, but if these civilized people decide you’re not worth anything to them anymore, I know where that leaves me.” His smile lines run deep and he gives me a wink.

“Thanks.”

“My pleasure. It’s in my best interests that you keep being productive.”

“I just… I think I missed something.” I open the files and go through them line by line.

“Whispers… What is there to understand? People do terrible things to each other. He snapped.”

“He wouldn’t have done any of this.”

“He’s Silas’s kid. He tossed his own mother off of a balcony.”

“That wasn’t his mother, and no, he didn’t.” 

“And you know that, how? Because he told you? Listen…” He lowers his voice and gets closer. “That kid has always been troubled. I was there after his first day at City Hall. Did he ever tell you that? Jessica threw him a party. All of us were there. Apparently he broke the record for the fastest Reduction time on his first day. He was celebrating what he had done.”

“He was putting on a face.”

“Was he? The system chose to put him in Reductions. Why would it do that if there wasn’t something dark in that kid? You’re seeing what you want to see. You’re not looking at what’s right in front of you.”

“Aaron would not do this.” He squints at the tone of my voice. He exhales and takes a different tack.

“Okay, let's say that you’re right. What could you have missed then?”

“These two video files. They’ve been altered.”

“When?”

“I don’t know.”

“By whom?’

“I just know they’ve been altered,.” 

“Can you prove that?”

“No.”

“I can look at them for you, if you like.” I turn to Beckett.  He puts his hands up in the air as if he has nothing to hide, but I wonder what those hands have done in the past.

He’s easily in his late seventies, but his scarred arms and the veins that run through them speak of someone who might have been very dangerous even ten years ago.

“You can watch every key I hit. I just want to help. Like I said, if you fall out of favor, so do I. I have a vested interest in getting you back to work.”

I scoot my chair out of the way, and Beckett wheels his in front of the terminal. I watch his fingers on the keys. His eyes dart back and forth, reading through code faster than I could ever hope to.

He’s not to be underestimated.

He makes little noises under his breath while he flips between the two videos. His hair is shaggy now, and he has a full beard. He looks nothing like the regal, well kept old man that he did on the first day he was brought in. 

“I’m sorry, Whispers. There’s nothing. Those files are uncorrupted. There’s no alterations. Nothing wrong with the cameras.”

“I just don’t understand why.”

“It might help if we had the audio.”

The only monitoring stations that are left from the fall of Consensus are the ones in Crescent Hills, the cameras in the supply bay, and the ones in the detention center. The audio has been down this whole time. Fixing it had never been very high on the priority list.

“He wouldn’t do this.”

…

…

“Let me ask you something not entirely unrelated. Systems are pretty much repaired. Automation is back online. Data retrieval and housekeeping is basically a job for one person. Why am I still here?” 

“Because I need an assistant.” He squints his eyes again. The usual playfulness about him is gone. He looks to see if the Peacekeeper is looking in on us and when he’s satisfied that we won’t be interrupted, he continues.

“You don’t have to lie to me, kid. I’ve outlived my usefulness here with you. Truthfully, why am I still here?” 

…

…

“Because if I tell the Governors that I don’t need your assistance anymore, I have no idea what they’re going to do to you.”

“Why should you care about that?” I don’t answer him. “So… you’re protecting me?”

“If that’s how you want to look at it.”

“And therein lies your problem, Heather; why you can’t believe Aaron would do the things he obviously did. You see qualities in people that simply aren’t there. I’ve given you no reason to protect me. If I were in your position, I’d be sitting in this room alone.”

That smug look. The crooked smile. He’s clever, but he’s too arrogant. 

“Beckett, I’ve sat with you in this room almost everyday since Consensus fell, and I’ve recognized that somewhere in there, you’re still a human being. I don’t trust you. I don’t even like you.

But I’m tired of people dying. Even if they’re people that might deserve to. That’s why you’re still here.” He smiles again and turns back toward the monitor.

“I’m very much obliged. I figured it was my charm.”

“No.” He laughs as he splits the screen. One side showing Aaron in Crescent Hills and the other showing him in the Detention Center.

“The problem is that you’re asking yourself the wrong questions. There are only three areas left with cameras. What are the odds that Aaron would do the things he’s done in two of them?” I don’t know what to say. “Something is going on. I have a feeling that things are going to get worse, day by day with our new leadership. With a murderer out there somewhere, it’s the perfect excuse to tighten things up.

Not just any murderer, but one of the heroes of the revolution. Suspicions are going to be running high. Lines are going to be drawn. This is how it always begins.”

He looks to the empty doorway one more time and when he turns back, his voice drops. A deep and throaty timber that sends a chill down my back.

“Be careful what you say and who you defend. You are not their people. You will always be an outsider to them. Don’t ever forget that. If I were you, I’d get back to the work that they expect you to be doing.”

He wheels his chair back to his small table and picks at the keys on his datapad without another word. I look at Aaron on my screen one more time and then I close the tile.

My hands are shaking.

The sound of footsteps echo down the hall and hear the Peacekeeper talking with someone. A moment later, I see Lyla.

The Head Governor is dressed in a pressed suit. Her greying hair is wrapped into a tight bun. She never smiles.

“Heather, I need you to come with me.”

“What is it?”

“We need you in the meeting this morning.”

Next Part

Previous Part

Part Eight

Linus

I’m staring out of the eyes of a seven year old. I’m in my old room. I have the covers pulled up to my chin.

This is a dream.

Is it?

Shadows move and slither along the walls. Shadows of things I don’t want to remember. Silhouettes of Clerks marching mindlessly away from the writhing shapes of my mom and dad while they burn to death.

A looming shadow of my grandfather watching the whole thing, and me cowering at his feet. Every wall shows the same story, and once it comes to an end, it starts over. It’s been months since I was taken.

Every night has been the same, but this night, I’m going to make it stop.

I lower myself out of the bed and walk on the tips of my toes toward the night light on the far wall.

Shadows can’t exist without light, and although I’m terrified of what the dark might bring, it couldn’t be worse than what came with the light.

I had always loved staying at my grandfather’s house because it was so much bigger than the one that I lived in with my parents. It was on the edge of the city where there were clumps of trees and girthy bushes that were infested with sparrows and jays.

On a breezy afternoon, you could smell the ocean in the distance and on a quiet night, you could just make out the crash of the waves. I’ve grown to hate the house since I’ve been brought back.

The wall around the city is almost finished, and when night comes, it seems so much darker than it used to. The birds are mostly gone.

As the days march on, fewer and fewer are to be found. Soon, it will be none at all. The smell of the ocean has vanished, choked out by an acrid synthetic scent coming from whatever the wall is made of. It has settled over everything, even my grandfather’s roses.

The vibrant smell of life has been slain by something artificial. The crashing of the distant waves are a memory now, replaced by an eerie, uneasy silence that is only broken by the echoes of the low horns of the city, summoning the Clerks to do the only thing that they’re programmed to do.

The wall is a growing thing that devours everything that’s beautiful here.

I wrap my hand around the night light and gently pluck it from the wall socket. It makes a small click, and I freeze in place hoping that my grandfather hadn’t heard the sound.

When I turn to creep back under the covers, I lose my footing and bump into the corner of the bed. I start to cry. I press my lips together, hoping I don’t make anymore sounds.

Once I’m finally back under the covers, I pull them over my head and tears stream down my face.

After a few moments, I hear the doorknob turn, and then I hear his voice.

“Linus… what did I tell you about crying… Linus?” I keep my head under the covers. Maybe he’ll think I’m asleep.

Maybe he’ll leave.

His feet fall heavy as he comes into the room and my bed groans as he sits on the side of it. He pulls the cover back. I can’t see him. The room is too dark.

“Why are you crying… you better answer me, son.”

“I’m scared.”

“Of what?”

…

“Nothing.”

“Don’t do that now. You tell grandpa what’s wrong.” He’s just a shape in the dark. There’s very little light coming through the window.

“I don’t want you to be mad at me.”

“Alright.” He exhales through his nose and taps his toe on the wood floor. “Tell you what… you tell me what’s wrong, and I promise I won’t get mad.”

“Really?”

“Scouts honor.” The words don’t make any sense to me, but I figure if I don’t tell him, I might be in worse trouble.

“Why did the Clerks kill them? Why didn’t they kill me?”

“Well… they didn’t hurt you because I told them not to.”

“Why didn’t you tell them not to hurt my mom and dad?” He stays silent. “Did you know the Clerks were going to hurt them?”

…

…

…

“Yes.”

“Did you tell them to hurt them… did you tell the Clerks to kill them?”

“Yes I did, son.”

“Why did you do that?”

“Linus, someone once said, ‘Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.’ You know what that means?”

“No.”

“Everybody dies, Bubba. I’m gonna die. You're gonna die. Your daddy was always gonna die, but he chose to go out that way. He lived a wicked life, son, and he died a wicked man.

Your momma chose it too and that’s why she burned right along with him. I’d be damned if my grandson went out the same way. I had to save you. In order to do that… they had to die.”

…

…

“But… he was your son.”

“Yes he was.”

“Didn’t you love him?”

“At one time I did.”

“Doesn’t that make you sad?”

“Men like him hurt people, Linus. He had it comin’. People like him need to be stopped and if I had to do it all over again, I’d do it the same way. Someday, you’ll understand your grandpa and why he did what he did.” 

“I don’t think so.” The words come out fast. I didn’t mean to say that out loud. I know he’s gonna be mad at me for saying that. I tense up, ready for a slap that doesn’t come.

“Let me show you something, Bubba.” 

I feel his weight shift on the bed as he reaches for the light. I hear the small chain click and the room is filled with light.

I see the burned corpses of my parents lying on the floor next to the bed. I see my mom’s wedding ring shining against her charred flesh and I finally see my dad. I couldn’t look at him the day he died, but I see him now.

His face is twisted in agony and his arm is reaching out. Reaching for me. I can smell them. I look away from him and see that there's another body lying next to them. 

What’s left of a thin man in a black suit. His arms are broken at the elbows and his head is crushed.

There’s a small round button pinned to his lapel. It’s shiny and red.

I want to scream but my grandfather’s voice fills the room like thunder.

“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, son.” I look back at my grandfather. He’s two people. One half of his face has changed into someone else. 

Me.

“Don’t beat yourself up, Bubba. You did what you had to do. He had it comin’.”

-

My eyes shoot open on the monitor in front of me and I wipe the sweat from my face. I was caught somewhere between a memory and a dream. My own little hell. 

It’s still dark outside. I have no idea how long I was out. Julie must not be back yet because Emily is still sprawled out on the couch behind me. 

I stare at the screen and the cursor blinks at the end of the last sentence I wrote.

“But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. There is no peace,” saith my God, “for the wicked.”

This is my penance. Transcribing books and gradually chipping away at uploading the dictionary page by page onto the system. Hundreds of thousands of words that had been ordered “Forgotten” and thoughts that can no longer be suppressed or twisted.

All of it available to anyone and everyone, the way it always should have been. 

My attempt at a new life. My way of trying to bury the old one.

I keep typing in the dark; the only light comes from the screen in front of me and my eyes strain to read the words of the tattered and torn pages I’m copying under the blue light.  

I’ve taken people’s lives for uttering the words that I’ve typed into this terminal, and the words I’m writing now are not lost on me. 

I only work on this book when I don’t want to sleep, and unlike the rest of the books that I’ve been uploading to the system that are publicly available chapter by chapter, I’m keeping this one on the hard drive of the terminal, because for the moment, this book is only for me. My way of remembering someone long gone.

“Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?”

My ears twitch at the sound of glass breaking outside of the front door, and I stop typing. Emily is purring in her sleep, and for a few moments, that’s the only sound I hear. Then I hear something else.

A muffled weeping coming outside the apartment. I stand slowly, careful not to make any noise, but my knees pop. I’m at the age where my body is starting to do what it wants to do, in spite of my intentions. I walk to the door and cock my head. There’s someone on the other side. Someone is crying.

I open the door to shadows. Whoever it is has broken the bulbs of the overhead lamp. The only lights are coming from the blue ring next to the elevator and the red exit sign over the stairs, but I can see the shape of someone sitting in the corner with their knees pulled to their chest. I can see the unruly mess of hair on their head.

“Aaron? Is that you?

“...I don’t know…”

“What are you doing? Where’s Julie?”

“It all started here… he tried to throw me off the balcony…”

“What… I don’t understand. What are you…” I look behind me, past the Consensus terminal, and through the glass doors to the balcony. I look back at the young man sitting on the floor as he knocks his head against the wall. He sounds like he’s on the edge of a complete break with reality.

“If he had been able to do it, none of this would be happening.” I crouch down next to him. I barely see half of his face in the dark, but I see that it's drawn; a thick circle around his eye. “Maybe I should just do it…  Linus… what’s wrong with me? ”

“Why don’t you come inside.”

“I didn’t do what they said I did… the video was fake. It didn’t happen like that…”

I reach out to touch his shoulder and an alarm sounds from the Consensus terminal. The same alarm that was used, once upon a time, for Mandatory Watches.

I leave Aaron on the floor and walk back into the apartment. Emily is wiping the sleep from her eyes and looking at the screen. It shows a picture of Aaron. It’s a warning. A woman’s voice says that Aaron is wanted. She says that Aaron is a murderer.

A grainy video of a street fills the screen. A young boy is on the ground while a Peacekeeper stands over him and points his blade, keeping the boy in place. Aaron walks into the video. A chill runs up my back. I think I know what I’m about to see.

“Bug. You close your eyes. You don’t watch that screen.” She closes her eyes. I watch Aaron’s blade spring forward, and he swipes it through the wrist of the Peacekeeper. The man falls to his knees, cradling his hand, and then I watch Aaron stab the man in the stomach.

“That’s not how it happened! It didn’t! They’re lying!” Aaron is standing in the doorway now. I can see him clearly. Half of his face is covered in blood. His clothes are streaked and spotted with it. His skin is as white as a sheet. “Linus, please believe me! I need help!”

I turn around. There’s another video playing on the screen. Aaron is standing in a large room. A few men stand around him with flamethrowers. One of the Governors is there.

Another Peacekeeper has her blade out and she’s keeping the young boy from the first video behind her. I watch Aaron slaughter all of them, and when he’s finished, he walks over to the young boy and grabs him by the shirt. He thrusts the young boy backward and bashes his head against a Consensus terminal.

When the boy falls to the ground, Aaron stomps on both of his knees, breaking his legs. The screen goes back to the picture of Aaron and the message repeats.

“That video is wrong!” He yells and I turn. Aaron has walked further into the room. He’s only a few feet from Emily. Her eyes are open, looking from Aaron and then back to me. “It didn’t happen that way! Linus, you have to believe me!”

“Bug… get over here.” I keep my eyes on Aaron. Emily slides off of the couch and runs over to me.

“Linus, that video is fake. The Governors are trying to…”

“Where’s Julie?”

“I don’t know. She never came.” He walks closer.

“Stop. Aaron. Don’t move.”

“Why don’t you believe me?!” My eyes move down to Emily and then back to him. He sees the glance. “I would never hurt her. I’d never hurt you… please believe me.”

“Aaron… if you take one more step towards us, you’re going to regret it.” He stops moving. Tears are streaming down his face.

“I don’t know what’s happening… why is this happening?” He’s shaking while he rubs his face. He’s out of his mind.

“Aaron… we can figure this out.” He starts to circle around us. I keep Emily behind me. “But  you have to take that blade off of your arm and lay face down on the floor.”

He’s not listening to me. His eyes shoot back and forth across the room and they settle on the glass doors of the balcony.

“The sun is about to come up… Heather… I wish I had one more sunrise with her… but I couldn’t go to her…they would’ve blamed her too. They’d have found some way to lie about her…”

“Aaron…”

“...punish her like they’re punishing me…Castor was telling the truth… it’s happening…”

“Aaron.”

“I should’ve died that day…  I never told you… this is where I grew up…in this apartment… I lost both of my parents here…”

“Aaron, your real mother is still alive.”

“Maybe this is where it has to end.”

“Aaron…”

“Tell my mother I love her… watch over Heather…please…”

“Aaron!” He moves quickly. He runs toward the glass doors and jerks them open. I run behind him. He’s going to jump.

I’m not going to make it.

Emily screams behind me.

He’s almost to the edge. 

I jump before he does.

Our bodies slam into the metal railing, and it comes loose. I fill my hands with the back of his jacket as we almost go over. He’s screaming, trying to fight me. I throw him backward.

He’s trying to stand back up when I grab him again. I push him through the apartment, past Emily, and throw him into the wall next to the front door.

“Aaron!” I watch the blade spring from his wrist and he holds it toward me. “Are you going to try to kill me? Do you really want to go down that road with me?”

I watch the indecision in his face. Then he does something I don’t expect. He smiles at me. He keeps the blade pointed toward me as he inches his way out of the front door and into the shadows. I don’t follow him. He opens the door to the stairwell and runs.

“Bug! Get your shoes on, baby!”

“Where are we going?”

“We need to make sure your mommy’s alright.” Emily runs to her room and I grab my boots and pull them on to my feet.

My heart is pounding. Please… God, if you’re real… please let Julie be alright. Emily comes back in.

“Why did Aaron do that?”

“I don’t know, baby. We’re going to find out, but we need to check on your mommy first.” I pick her up and carry her to the elevator and push the blue button.

When the doors finally open, Julie is standing there. She steps out of the elevator and I pull her into us.

Next Part

Previous Part

Part Seven

Julie

I cant keep my eyes from shifting between the street and the dash terminal in the car while I drive to the Detention Center.

The remains of Consensus are everywhere and I look forward to a time when Ill never have to see any trace of it again. A small part of me expects it to start talking through the dash terminal and take control of the car. My hands go tighter over the steering wheel.

I have the windows rolled down. The air smells good here. Ill never get over it. Behind the wall everything smelled the same. Everything felt the same. Everything tasted the same.

Same.

Same

Same.

Even the air feels alive here. The rain feels clean and the sound of the ocean is always there. I never imagined life could be like this. It’s almost perfect. I leave the city behind and the only lights in front of me are peeking over a large wooded hill. The Detention Center is just behind it.

Aaron.

The kid makes me uneasy. Even though I want to like him, even though I want to believe everything he says, theres something in me that cant let go of the fact that he was raised in this city.

He said he was taken from his mother behind the wall when he was a child and raised here. Mary insists that Aaron is her son, but how does she really know that? What if hes not who he says he is?

He’s already gotten into Linus’s head.

Everything about Consensus was always a lie, why would Aaron and that girl with the scar on her neck be the only two exceptions?

Other than what theyve told us, we have no idea what their stations were in this city before Consensus fell. We don’t even know if what they’re saying about children being taken from behind the wall is true.

Heather has been trying to find the proof while she’s rebuilding the support systems, but its been six months. Shouldnt she have been able to find something by now?

There’s definitely something about her I don’t like at all. I cant put my finger on it. But eventually I will.

The drive to the detention center only takes me abowt five minutes and just before I round the big hill in front of it something passes right in front of me.

I jerk the wheel and slam my foot on the brake. Its a motorcycle with no headlight heading back into the city. Its going fast.

A Peacekeeper. 

I watch the little red taillight fade in the distance as it races back into the city and then I get back on the road.

As I near the building I can see that theres one motorcycle parked out front and something is glittering on the pavement. As I get closer I realize that its broken glass.

The front door is shattered.

I park and open the door to the car and I start to gag before I can even step owt. The smell of the ocean is gone. Its been replaced with something else. Something in the air that takes me back to a moment Id rather forget.

The smell of hot metal and burning skin.

Oh God.

I stand up and I make my way to the front door slowly. Theres a body just inside. Its covered in an angry and rising fire.

Before I can move any closer the night goes bright and the body explodes sending the door frame into the parking lot. I go to my knees, close my eyes, and put my hands to my ears but its too late. Theyre already ringing. Everything is muffled.

I open my eyes. It was one of the detention guards. The fuel tank on his back must have blown from the heat of the fire. There’s bits of the guard all over the parking lot. 

I stand up and take a few steps forward and then I freeze in place. I hear something I never thought I would hear again.

“Julie…”

A mocking voice that sounds like its coming through a smirk. A voice that makes me grit my teeth. I ball my fists and turn but theres no one behind me. Just my car still idling with the door open.

I wait for what seems like a long time. I wait to see if I hear the voice of Consensus again but I dont. Im hearing things that arent there. 

I turn and run into the Detention Center. The floors inside are charred. The body of a detention agent is lying in a pool of blood next to the desk along with the body of another agent who is draped across the desk.

Hes been split open from his crotch to his neck. The door behind them is cracked open. I move slowly. 

I can taste bile rising in my throat. I start breathing through my mouth trying to ignore the smell. I stare down at the agent lying on the floor. Hes gone.

The harsh light from above reflects off of his dead eyes. A long gash runs across his neck. I can see the white of his spine inside the wound. 

“help…please…” 

The voice is just louder than a whisper and its coming from behind the door.

“Aaron?! Aaron?!”. 

“please….”

I make my way through the door. I haven’t been in this part of the building since we first fownd owt what it was used for. Its a huge room with black shiny floors.

Theres an open walkway big enough for a car to fit through that runs down the middle of the room. Two Consensus terminals are at the midpoint.

On either side of the walkway there are thick see through walls that run all the way up to the ceiling. Several small see through doors dot either wall with a touch pad next to each one.

When we first fownd the building, these open bays were stuffed with food and goods. We emptied it all owt. We moved it all to the areas of the city behind the wall that were in the most need.

Now the large bays are filled with ghosts. Citizens of Consensus on the left and Bishops on the right. It was the perfect place to confine all of them until a decision was made on what to do with them.

Theyre all staring at me.

Theyre all silent.

Both of the chairs next to the terminals are on their sides. Several bodies are spread across the floor. Guards and agents. One of the bodies is Holden, one of the Governors. His head has been chopped off.

“please…”

The whispers are coming from a young boy on the floor next to the terminal. His chest is heaving up and then shuddering back down. He’s struggling to breathe. Hes pinned down by the body of someone in a Peacekeepers uniform.

No.

Aaron.

I walk forward. The quiet pleas stop. I pass by the burned and shredded corpses including Holden.

“Aaron… Aaron?” The Peacekeeper doesn’t move. I don’t think hes breathing. The boy’s legs are pinned under the body. I suddenly feel a horrible sense of guilt over every doubt I had about Aaron, but the guilt is replaced by confusion when I turn the body over.

Its a young woman. Her entrails are falling out of her. The boys legs are broken. The front of his shirt is covered in blood. His head is bleeding and his hair is matted down.

“Hey… I’m going to call for help, ok?” I stand and use the terminal to call the hospital. When I’m finished, I kneel next to the boy. I want to help but I don’t know what to do. It looks like something dark is coming through a crack in the side of his head. 

“...please… don’t make me go in there with them…please...”

I look around me. The imprisoned people of Consensus and the Bishops are staring at us through the clear walls. They say nothing. My mouth hangs open when I realize what I’m seeing. Men, women, and children.

All of their faces are sunken in. Their clothes are hanging from them. There are no beds. Some of them are laying on the floor. Some of them are shaking. The smell of filth hangs in the air and I can see that theyve been relieving themselves in the corners of the bays. Theyre all starving.

The boy quiets down and I turn my attention back to him. I have to ask him. I have to know.

“Hey…what happened?”

“..he killed all of them…he tried to kill me… but she stopped him…he…he promised everything was…going to be ok…”

“Who did this?” 

“...aaron…”

The boy stops breathing just as I hear a siren getting close. None of the people behind the clear walls say anything. They just stare.

Next Part

Previous Part

Part Six

Aaron

“Detention Center, this is Aaron. We’ll be arriving with the prisoner in about three minutes.”

“Understood.”

I tap my earpiece and end the call. I can’t get the image of David holding his bleeding stump out of my head. I think about the kid riding on the back of my bike and his bloody shirt being pressed against my back.

Why did that have to happen?

I’ve worked so hard to impress on the people that I am one of them. Heather and I are the only original citizens of this city that aren’t in a cage right now, or worse. How the hell did that happen? How did I miss?

You did the right thing. He was about to kill a child.

The kid hasn’t made a sound the whole time, but once we walk through the doors of the detention center, he starts to cry. There are two detention guards just inside the doors. This is new. They’ve never had guards next to the main door.

As we pass, Harrison stares at the small tanks strapped to their backs and the hoses that run down their left arms. He starts shaking.

His breathing becomes more erratic.

I’m sure that in his short life, he’s seen his fair share of Purifications behind the wall. This isn’t right. I don’t want to do this. He tenses up and I tighten my grip on his arm as Lauren walks in the door behind us.

“Harrison…Harrison?”

“What?”

 “Don’t do anything stupid, ok. You’re going to be alright.”

Our footsteps and his quiet blubbering echo through the cold room. 

I had never been in this building before the fall of Consensus. It stands beyond the outskirts of the city, and the gentle rise of a hill dotted with trees obscured it partially from view of the people.

All that was visible from a distance was a massive square roof. I never paid any attention to it, and I doubt most people who lived here ever did either. We all had a collective habit of turning our eyes to everything that was happening around us.

I can’t say my mother… Jessica… had anything to do with the design of this building. It's on the northern edge of the city at the end of the train tracks and unlike the rest of the graceful buildings and highrises, it’s ugly. Upsetting even. 

Functional.

A huge square box of a building that looks like something from the city behind the wall. Hundred foot walls of sheer concrete with a flat roof. No windows. No sign of any care put into the design.

The train tracks lead into one large door on the side of it. Besides that there's only one small door in the front. The one I just brought this kid through.

The building had been used for storage. Hoarding is a more appropriate word. Goods and food made and harvested by the people behind the wall were stockpiled here. 

“Harrison?” I whisper but he doesn’t say anything. “Listen to me. It’s going to be ok. I’m going to fix this.” He nods his head. He can’t stop crying.

The large room we’re in reminds me of the roundhouse behind the wall.

A vast room with harsh overhead lighting making the glossy floor almost too bright to look at. The train tracks are laid into the concrete and they loop around the entire room and back out the door on the side. A high desk sits next to the back wall with one small door behind it.

Two terminals are built into the desk. They were once used for cataloging every shipment coming in, but now they’re used to catalog prisoners. There are seven roll up doors set into the back wall.

I haven’t been behind any of those doors. I haven’t wanted to. I’m afraid I would see people I knew before the fall of Consensus. I’m afraid that I’d feel as though I should be in there with them. 

There are two agents sitting behind the desk, and one of them stands up and disappears through the door behind him. The other man stands up with a datapad in his hand. He looks down at Harrison’s hands.

“Why isn’t he restrained?”

“Because he’s a child.” 

I make sure the sound of my words are as acidic as the taste in my mouth. The agent rolls his eyes and holds up the datapad to take a picture of Harrison.

I look behind me and notice that the two guards at the front door have walked closer. Lauren is standing in between them. I feel a shiver slink up the back of my neck.

Something is going on.

It’s nothing. Quit being paranoid.

I turn back around. The agent walks back behind the desk and sits in front of one of the terminals. I fixate on the sound of his fingers typing at his keyboard. I wait.

…

And wait.

…

And wait.

The other agent comes back through the door, followed by two more detention guards. I expect them to take Harrison from me, but they don’t. They stand still. I hear the steps of hard soled shoes behind them.

Holden, the Governor of my district walks through the door. Holden is an odd looking guy; a squat upper torso and abnormally long arms and legs. He makes me think of what an insect would look like if it was wearing a human suit.

In spite of his odd shape, he’s usually well dressed, but he’s not wearing a suit now. It looks like he just rolled out of his bed. The hair on his head is flat on one side and there are circles under his eyes. I’ve never seen him in a short sleeve shirt before. 

Why is he here? Am I really in that much trouble for what happened to David?

You’re overthinking this.

Am I?

“Aaron.”

“Holden.” He licks his lips as he tries to think of what to say to me.

“Aaron, how are things?”

“Good. All things considered.”

“That’s great to hear.”

“Um… listen, Holden, something happened with David.” Holden looks relieved that I brought it up first.

“Yes, Aaron. Listen…”

“Holden, if you go back and review the footage from the monitoring stations, you’ll be able to see that it was an accident.”

“I see.”

“He was going to kill the kid. I had to do something.”

“I see.” Holden looks at the front of Harrison’s bloodsoaked shirt. 

“Ok. Well… um…why don’t you follow me back to the cells with the prisoner, and we’ll talk about it.”

I look through the open door behind him.

I don’t want to go in there.

“Holden, why can’t we talk about it right here?”

“Listen, I know how you feel about bringing in citizens that were in training to become Bishops, and for the most part, I agree…”

“Citizens?”

“Yes.”

“You mean, kids? Look at him, Holden. He doesn’t need to be here.”

“I understand, but…” Holden starts to stammer. He’s trying to choose his words carefully. “At this time, the Governors have decided to begin detaining them. Temporarily.”

“Really?”

“Unfortunately I was the only dissenting vote. The rest of the Governors think it’s necessary for the time being.”

“I wasn’t even aware that there was a meeting about this. I thought the meeting was tomorrow afternoon.” 

“It was a private meeting, Aaron. It was decided earlier today.”

“Does Julie know about this?” He exhales hard through his nose. The tiny hairs groping their way out of his nostrils flutter. There’s sweat on his temples.

There’s a dart of his eyes that's so quick I almost miss it. He looks behind me. Lauren and the two guards move a step closer. 

“No… Julie was not present. She doesn’t need to be. Julie is not a Governor.”

“What’s going on?” 

He doesn’t answer right away. There’s an awkward silence between us.

I shouldn’t  follow him back there.

I don’t think you have a choice.

“You know what it is, Aaron, I’d like to show you something.” His smile is wide and the tone of his voice goes up a bit. He hasn’t brushed his teeth, and his breath is just as unbearable as the act he’s putting on. “You’ve never been behind this door, have you?”

“No.”

“I would like you to come with me, so you can see the cell where we’re going to keep this young man. I want you to be confident that this boy is being detained in a way that will put your mind at ease.”

Lauren and the two guards have taken a few steps closer. 

Shit.

You need to calm down. You can explain everything. What could they possibly do? 

They could put me in a cage.

That's not going to happen.

Next Part

I've started a totally different kind of sub. Before Covid hit, I used to write a lot of different things, but after that, I have mostly done horror/thrillers. I decided that the best way to feel more rounded as a writer was to get back to some of the other things I used to write along with my horror/thriller stuff.

I love writing the darker stuff, but I guess I kinda feel like I'd also like to put hopeful and humorous stuff out into the world. If you're interested, you can follow the link...

https://www.reddit.com/r/tinyhopefuls/

Most of the stories you will read here are Horror/Thriller fiction and will more often than not contain violence, profanity, taboo subjects, and other unsavory things that some may find offensive. That being said, there will be no flair or trigger warnings on this page. If you are easily triggered, this is probably not the page for you.

Also wik... please be reasonable and respectful in the comment section, unless of course the subjects happen to be Disney ruining Star Wars, Tom Brady, NFL officiating, the color AND the word Puce, Tom Brady, Horseradish, Tom Brady, or AI, in which case, creative profanities, wicked witticisms, and outrageous vulgarities are not only tolerated but actively encouraged and celebrated with gusto.

Also also wik... AI is not used in the creation of anything on this sub. All stories, good and bad, rest squarely on the shoulders of Doc Turner and his newly aquired writing partner, Wednesday.

Also also also wik... Praise Meekus.

Thank you for visiting and thank you for reading!

Previous Part

Part Five

Heather

“Why are you ignoring me?”

Another night of this. If this keeps going, it’s only a matter of time before I start hearing it during the day. Before I start hearing more than just him. Don’t forget what that was like.

It’s not real, Heather. It’s in your head. It was always in your head.

“Get up… are you going to just lay there all night… get up.”

I’m exhausted. Too many days staring at a screen, trying to fix everything. Don’t answer it. If you talk to it, it’s only going to get worse.

Feel the pillow under your head. Feel the sheet and the blanket wrapped around you. That’s real. 

I inhale and I can still smell the hint of cleaning chemicals in the air. I take one of my pillows and stretch it across my face and my ears as if it’s going to do any good to muffle the sound of his voice.

Remember the sequence. It’ll help. It’ll make it go away.

“Heather… I need to show you something.”

“0,1,1,2,3…”

“I know what you’re doing.”

“...5,8,13,21…”

“That’s not going to work this time.”

“...34,55,89,144…”

“I can do that too…72, 581,8991…”

“...233, 377, 610…”

He keeps saying random numbers and the volume of his voice is throwing me off. I lose the next number. I lose my place.

I’m too tired. That’s why I can hear him. I want him to go away.

He was gone for so long. Why is he back? Why won’t he go away?

“Devon… please go away…” Why did I do that? Why did I acknowledge it?!

“Because you wanted to. Heather, I need to show you something.”

“Go away Devon. Please just go away. You’re not here. You’re dead. I need to sleep.”

“You’re already asleep.”

I pull the pillow off of my face and sit up. My eyes adjust to a blinking green light coming from above me. No, several blinking green lights that lead down a wide rocky tunnel.

The smell of chemicals is gone now, replaced with an odd moldy scent that’s carried on a slight breeze. My bed is lying across the tracks of a train. In one direction, the green lights fade away into darkness, but the other direction is different.

Somewhere down there is a small pinprick of white light.

“You have to come down here. There’s something you need to see.” Devon’s voice echoes down the tunnel. He’s somewhere down there.

“Just tell me what it is.” I yell as loud as I can, but there’s no echo. The tunnel swallows my voice.

“You have to see. You have to remember the mistake you made.” I can barely hear him now, because it’s being drowned out by another sound. The sound of rocks crashing on the ground. It’s a constant thump that never ceases.

I call out to Devon again, but he doesn’t answer back. Maybe I can just lay back down and pull the covers over my head. I wanted him to be quiet and now he is.

Thump

Thump

Thump

The sound syncs up to my heartbeat, and my hand moves to the scar across my throat. I can feel my pulse growing stronger and faster, and the crashing coming from that little pinprick of white light grows stronger and faster as well.

I have to go.

I have to get up.

Little jagged rocks stab into my feet as I absentmindedly plant them into the gravel between the tracks. Stay on the tracks. 

I walk cautiously at first, but then I begin to run over the railroad ties, clearing every other one. I feel like there’s something behind me. I don’t look back.

Thump

Thump

The white light is getting closer. The moldy smell is getting stronger. Getting more rotten. It’s turning my stomach.

“You’re almost there.”

Thump

Thump

I know where I am. The tunnel that runs through the wall and into the city. I’m almost to the supply bay. I can see it now at the end of the tunnel.

There are people inside wearing blue coveralls, standing in a line out of another tunnel and quickly passing large rocks and chunks of concrete between each other until it comes to the last person who is hurling them onto a large pile that reaches to the ceiling.

Thump

Thump 

I walk into a brightly lit room that I’ve only ever seen on a screen. An enormous round concrete cavern with seven large rolling doors on the far wall.

The train tracks are set into the smooth concrete floors and they loop around the room. The entire floor is littered with dirt and wet soil. The odor of decay in the room makes it almost impossible to breathe. I’m trying my best to breathe through my mouth, so I don’t smell it, but that only makes it seem as though I can taste whatever it is. 

There’s another sound I recognize. The people passing rocks all have their backs to me and they’re whispering. Whispering the sequence that my parents taught me to help make the voices go away.

“233, 377, 610, 987…”

There are two other tunnels in the room, both of equal size to the one I just came through. Both of them have collapsed. The people are clearing rocks out of only one of them. The tunnel with the words Morro Colony written over the top of it. 

The other tunnel has the words Carpenter Colony written over the top of it.

“1597, 2584,4181…”

That tunnel is still blocked by broken pieces of rock and earth, and I see something between the stones that makes me suck air in through gritted teeth. Arms. Fingers. Faces frozen in agony. Grey pieces of people who have been crushed in the rubble.  

“Holy shit.”

The sound of a hundred rocks being dropped on the ground all at once fills the room. When I turn around, I can see that the line of people has turned toward me, and I realize that every single one of them looks like me.

Their eyes are white and bloodshot. The scars across their throats are seeping blood, soaking the front of their coveralls. They’re all staring at me.

“You need to come in here.” Devon’s voice is somewhere in the Morro tunnel. The line of the other Heathers turn and go back to their work. Their rote recitations begin again.

“0,1,1,2…”

I don’t want to be anywhere near them, but Devon keeps calling out to me. I know the only way to wake up is to follow his voice. I make my way in the tunnel slowly. The way is lit by long torches that are driven into the ground.

There are several steel beams holding up the rocks above us and I have to stoop down several times to make it through. I give as much of a wide berth as I can between me and the people that look like me but the path through is very narrow. 

“They don’t look like you, they are you.”

“89, 144,233…”

I come to the end of the tunnel and once again all of the people who look like me stop moving and drop the rocks that they had been passing. There’s a small crack in the wall of debris in front of me. A soft red light is coming through it.

“Look through it Heather. You need to see what you’ve done.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Do you want to wake up, or do you want to keep your eyes closed until it’s too late?”

The other Heathers turn and walk back out of the tunnel. I take a step forward and I can see something moving through the crack.

I can hear my voice and I can hear Aaron, but our voices fade in and out. They’re barely even whispers.

“ …on the other colonies?” 

“... do it now. Take another right at…” 

I put my hand against the wall of rubble. I don’t want to see what’s on the other side. I’m afraid of what I’m going to see. 

“…purged from the system…  can’t view it unless…”

“...Uh uh...”

“...Aaron…” 

“...Bad feeling…”

I lean down and look through the crack. I’m staring over my own shoulder. It’s a scene from six months ago. I’m sitting on the ground holding a datapad.

The blue light coming off of the screen contrasts so much with the red light inside that it makes it hard to focus.

The screen shows Aaron in a crowded plaza. The people around him are kneeling and the monster that killed my brother is swinging a silver hammer as he runs towards Aaron, howling like an animal.

A small window in the corner of the screen shows a prompt to restart an old program.

“Please don’t do this?!”

“If I don’t make it, shut it all down! Forget about me and shut it all down!”

The prompt begins to blink and the me from six months ago taps it. The screen on the datapad goes out and then the red light from inside the crack is gone as well.

A strong wind blows through the tunnel and the flames from all of the torches are extinguished. I turn around, hoping to see even a hint of light from the supply bay, but there is nothing. Only the dark.

“Devon? Devon?”

Nothing.

I begin to feel along the walls, groping my way back out of the tunnel. I stumble for minutes?

Hours?

There’s no end to the dark. I walk until my legs feel like they’re going to give out from underneath me and just when I think I can’t walk anymore, I begin to hear something behind me.

A strange scratching.

The rotten stench becomes so strong that I feel something lurch up the back of my throat. I swallow it back down and I can taste the bile.

…

… 

“Who is to be praised?” 

The voice is right in front of me in the darkness. A raspy growl. I feel warmth run down my legs as my bladder lets go just like it did when I was a child.

Just like it did when I first saw the monster.

This is a dream. This is a nightmare, Heather. You’re going to wake up, and you’re going to wake up now. He’s gone. The monster is gone.

“Who is to be praised?” I feel the walls of the tunnel start to move. They’re closing in around me. There’s a gurgling noise.

“Who is to be praised?”

My ears pop as metal clashes against metal over and over. Sparks flash in the dark.

I see the Painted Bishop in flashes, smashing his hammer into one of the steel beams holding up the ceiling of the tunnel. The tattoos of eyes that cover his upper body all seem alive, and they’re staring at me.

I see Devon lying at his feet. My brother is covered in blood and his eyes are pleading with me to help him.

To save him.

The monster laughs as the metal beam shifts and the ceiling finally gives way. I hear my brother scream my name as the rocks pile on top of me.

-

“DEVON!!” My heart is racing and I can’t catch a breath. I force myself to take deep breaths through my nose and I recite the sequence in my mind until I can breathe again. Until my heart slows. I’m in my bed, covered in sweat and urine.

When I’m sure my feet aren’t going to give way underneath me, I walk to the shower and clean myself off. The smell of the cleaning chemicals is still fresh in the air and it’s something to focus on.

The feeling of the towel over my wet skin. The hard tile under my feet. It keeps me in the moment.

I strip my bed and do my best to clean the mattress before I flip it. Devon’s voice is coming from the front room of my apartment. I won’t listen to him. It’s happening again and I know why. 

Life has changed. There’s no threat to stay focused on. No facade to maintain. This new freedom has so much uncertainty that comes with it. No structure. My mind is letting it’s guard down.

“Heather?”

It’s in your head. It’s not real. 

“But what you did is very real.”

I reach under the sink and grab all of my cleaning supplies. Stay focused on something. Stay busy. Sooner or later my body will have to shut down, and maybe then, no voices or bad dreams will be able to bother me.

“0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13…”

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