Empty Streets (17 page)

Eri had just taken the last bite when she started to laugh. She couldn't stop herself, the laugh bubbled up from inside her, unfamiliar and easy. She tried to stop, but the laughter kept coming, in short spurts, as she tried to swallow the chewed dough in her mouth.

Bodhi looked at her, an uncertain smile on his face. He started laughing too, her laughter contagious. She wiped tears from her eyes.

"What?" Bodhi asked.

"Oh, Bodhi. Seriously. Isn't this amazing? Is this real?" She wiped at her eyes again, her stomach muscles burning with laughter. "Who lives like this? Who evades street cleaners in order to eat a cookie? Do you ever think about how absurd this is?" Her laughter had subsided and transformed into a more subtle feeling, a feeling of happiness and sadness intermixed so completely that she felt as if she might now cry.

Reaching out to stroke her hair, Bodhi grabbed Eri by the shoulder and pulled her to him, holding her head to his chest. "Eri, I know this is weird. Funny and sad and heartbreaking and wonderful all at once. Whatever may come of it, I am glad I got to experience a piece of it with you."

Eri hugged him back, then turned her head to look up at him. "I'm happiest with you. Thanks for the best birthday ever."

He bent down and kissed her, a lingering kiss that made her heart beat faster. His hands fell low on her hips, pulling her towards him until she fit neatly against his body. He leaned back, sitting down on the couch and pulling her onto his lap, letting the fears and anxieties fall away for as long as he could keep them at bay.

"We should go, I have something cool to show you," Bodhi whispered, brushing the hair off Eri's forehead as she lay against him.

"I am not sure there is anything on this earth I want to do more than this right now. And it is my birthday, so I get to decide," Eri mumbled into Bodhi's chest.

"Okay, it can wait." Bodhi sat in silence, waiting. He knew Eri. She would get curious.

Eri lay still for a moment and then lifted her head to look at Bodhi sleepily. "Okay, you win. Let's go."

Bodhi laughed. "I knew you wouldn't be able to resist the unknown." She rolled onto her feet and he stood behind her, smoothing the warm wrinkles in his clothes.

Eri pulled the compass out of her pocket. The kerosene lamp was burning so low she could barely see the face of the compass, but when she tilted the face into the shadow, she noticed the letters for each direction glowed slightly, as did the tip of the arrow. "Which direction are we headed?"

"West, not far. Maybe a mile or two." Bodhi watched as Eri turned the compass slightly, getting used to its weight in her hand.

Eri put the compass back in her pocket and headed to the vent to exit as Bodhi extinguished the lamp. "Let's go," she said happily.

She followed closely behind, and the farther west they went, the more she noticed a sound she hadn't heard before. It reminded her of rhythmic, shuffling feet. The moon exposed their pale faces in the night like a lamp. Bodhi tried to keep them in the shadows, but the farther they went, the more space there was between buildings. She had never seen so much open space, and the breeze was different there. It was cool, bordering on cold, and it felt wet and smelled like earth. The ground felt gritty under her silent feet, and she could feel herself skid every time she stopped short.

Bodhi pulled her up to the side of a tall brick building. Eri looked sideways up at the two-story, stone building. Bodhi tugged at her hand gesturing for her to step on his looped hands so he could boost her through a low window. The window was broken, the glass having been cleaned out previously. She pulled herself up, standing on the window before lowering herself in through the broken pane. She heard Bodhi land softly behind her.

The room was lit from the moon, and there were uncovered windows everywhere. Eri felt unnervingly exposed, but insatiably curious. She turned in a circle, taking in what she saw: old desks, lamps affixed to them with metal strings; old computers and keyboards, sitting askew on the floor; aisles and walls covered with books and boxes. Above her, a ceiling extended two floors, with stairs that flowed to the sky.

"It's…a library." Eri breathed the last word out, in awe of the sheer amount of time trapped in this room.

"It is. Untouched, for the most part, for the last 50 years. There is weather damage of course, but most of the materials are still readable. But before you get too lost in it," he grabbed the back of her shirt as she started to wander away, "a couple of things. We are extremely vulnerable in here. The stone stymies some of our body heat, but not all of it, and the roof and windows do nothing to block us. Try, if you can, to find a few things and then get under a desk to look at them."

She nodded, unable to say anything. She bent down and picked up a book. "It's so different, holding a book in your hands," she whispered. Looking at the words closely, she could smell the paper and feel the texture of its age and dryness. She understood why Ben had a lot of books, and imagined herself curling up in a comfortable spot to read.

"You know what is especially interesting about books?" Bodhi asked from a couple yards away, as he rooted around for something on the floor.

"What?" she asked, turning her attention affectionately toward him.

"They don't change." He found what he was looking for and tossed it to her.

"What do you mean?" She caught the book easily. It was missing its cover, its pages withered and dogeared. She thumbed through it.

Bodhi smiled at the joy on her face. "I mean, the words in this book are the same as any other copy of the same book, barring new editions with lengthy explanations."

Eri stared at him, an uncertain look on her face. "Isn't that true of all books? Like, if you have read Great Expectations, you have read Great Expectations. We would have read the same book."

He shook his head. "You would think so, but once books all became digital, especially those shared with our fragile, young, impressionable minds…Well, let's just say some books get edited pretty often and no one really knows. Easy to edit, easy to save the changes, easy to distribute…" He trailed off, watching as her face became angry.

"What? That's ridiculous. And insulting. A book is a book, it has been written, it's done. You can't just change it! Isn't that illegal?" Eri's voice rose as the magnitude of this hit her.

Bodhi laughed. "Really, Eri? You think they care? Anyways, read that one when you have a chance." He gestured towards the book he had tossed her. She shoved it into her pocket.

"So…can I explore a little or what?" Eri was itching to look around.

Bodhi nodded. "Sure. But, before you do, I have one thing to show you."

She nodded. Bodhi took her hand as they ascended the stairs. At the top of the stairs, they followed the curve of the vaulted ceiling to another, smaller set of stairs, which took them to a small sitting room on the third floor. It was nothing but windows, mostly cracked or missing. The wind whistled in their ears.

Eri's breath caught as she looked out the windows. The moon, high in the sky, shined down on the lake, the endless lake, as it lapped at the sand. Eri now recognized the soft, rhythmic sound she had heard. She had never heard real waves before.

"I've never seen something so perfect."

"Me, either. Except you." He stared off into the sky, the stars muted by the moonlight. His quiet panic at their vulnerability subsided as he absorbed the inexplicable calm of the lake. "It is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world. And most people don't even know it's here."

"Is it…can we…could you boat across it? To somewhere else?" she asked.

"You mean, can we escape? I'm not certain we'd end up anywhere different on the other side. And, besides that, there's more protection here than anywhere else. We can't stay here long, there are helicopters every 20 minutes."

She leaned against him, closing her eyes and breathing in the sweet, lake-filled air. He tugged at her hand, and she opened her eyes. "This, too, is a good birthday present," she whispered. "Why are you so good at this?"

"I've had some time to think about all the things I'd give you if I could." He smiled as he shrugged.

Downstairs, Eri collected tattered periodicals and crispy newspapers. Her arms were full as she sat down and scooted under a desk. Her eyes strained in the dim light as she skimmed headlines. The first article she looked at was called "The Birth of Simulation," and it traced the history of the Sims machines. Some of the headings would take more investigation: "From Video Games to Online Chats," and "Online School Becomes the Norm." It ended with some op-ed concerning the development of the Sims machines. She could tell the author was trying to be balanced, but for the most part it read like an obituary to human society.

Another article was from a psychology journal. She ripped it out with the plan of reading it later. There was an entire article on the impact of the Sims on the juvenile mind. She saw a section titled "Sims Sleep" and another that said "an end to real creativity." She didn't want to read it right now. It would make her too sad.

Eri thumbed through the magazines, trying to figure out if there was a way to get all of them back to one of the hideouts, or at least to Ben's house. She tried to stack them in a way that would allow her to tie them together, but they slipped from her grip and spilled everywhere. She rolled her eyes at herself and stopped to pick them up. She paused in the process, pulling one magazine from the center of the mess. A tall man with blonde hair and a wide jaw stared back at her. She had goosebumps; he was impossibly good looking and terrifying at the same time. The tagline below him read, "The Man Behind the Sims: a political and economic revolution."

Eri stared at him until her eyes watered. It wasn't so much his face, but the way he wore it, tense and firm, determined and arrogant. She looked up, staring into space.

He looked like Zander.

She felt sick. She needed to talk to Bodhi. Pulling her waistband out, she took three magazines that looked important and put them between her lower back and her waistband, and then tied the drawstring of her pants as tight as she could. She squirmed to move out from under the desk when Bodhi appeared in front of her, out of breath and pale.

"Come on. Now." He turned and ran, trusting she would follow.

She scurried to her feet, feeling adrenaline course through her arms and legs. She tried to focus, but her mind swirled in a million directions and her heart pounded so loud she could hear nothing else. Bodhi sprinted to the back of the library, moving aside a piece of furniture to expose a cracked tile. He pulled the tile out and grabbed Eri, dropping her feet first through the hole. He dropped down after her, turning on the flashlight he had in his pocket.

"What's going on?" Eri hissed.

"They're here. We can't run. There, see that?" Eri squinted into the dark, wet room. It smelled like mold. Her feet splashed in water. He pulled her with him as he trudged to the back of the room. He stepped in a hole in the ground, the water rising to his knee.

"The heat seekers don't work through water. Lay down, take a deep breath and submerge yourself." He turned to run.

"Wait, what about you?" she whispered in a panic.

"I'm going to run," he whispered. "They know we're here. I'm going to draw them away from here and hide. They might not know there are two of us. Try to only bring your mouth above water for air. You are going to have to stay under water for as long as you can tolerate it. I will meet you at Ben's. Go east, you'll find it. I love you."

He was gone.

Eri laid down in the cold water, taking a breath and submerging herself. The silence of the water was terrifying as she imagined Bodhi hoisting himself out of this basement, covering the hole just enough so it wasn't visible. She imagined blue flashlights all over the library, people with headsets communicating what their heat seekers saw, where he was headed. She told herself he was smart-he knew this area inside and out-and she would see him at Ben's.

She resisted the urge to lift her entire upper body out of the water, but instead just poked her face out to get a breath. She tensed as the buoyancy of the water fought her submersion. She caught her foot on a rock and used it to anchor herself in the water, pushing against the floor near her upper body with her hands.

Time passed. She wondered how they got caught; an image of Zander sneering at Bodhi flashed in her mind. I know all about you. And then the street cleaner, smoking and muttering outside of her townhouse.

Her fingers grew wrinkly in the water, a feeling unfamiliar and scary. She wondered if they would unwrinkle later. When she was shivering too much to stay under the water anymore, she sat up and pulled herself out. She stood, dripping, waiting to hear footsteps or voices. After a long time of nothingness, she pulled a crate over to the hole Bodhi had tossed her down and moved the object blocking her exit. Then she waited to be ambushed.

When nothing happened, she hoisted herself out and looked around. Nothing looked different. There was an eerie emptiness to the room, which she realized was what it was like to be somewhere without him.

She shivered fiercely as she crept to the exit. Her teeth chattered. She climbed out the window, her fingers numb. She tumbled to the ground, rolling onto her back, the wind knocked out of her. Waiting, she listened, anticipating a crowd of street cleaners waiting to pounce on her. Eri crouched, trying to catch her breath and calm her heart. She closed her eyes and imagined the route to Ben's house, knowing she was at the lake. She could see the lake on the map, see Ben's house, and see the places in between that were safe. And then she fled.

Creeping close to the ground, she sprinted as fast as she could the distance to Ben's house, sneaking in through the vent and laying on the floor, breathing so hard she thought she would pass out. She stood up and grew dizzy, collapsing again on the floor.

"Bodhi?" she said. Fear pricked the back of her throat. "Bodhi, are you here?" The room's emptiness unnerved her. She sat on the floor in the middle of the room, crossing her soaked legs under her. Wet paper and pulp mashed into her back. She ignored it.