Nemecene: The Epoch of Redress (5 page)

No voices, no steps, no creaks, no temperature rise, no triggers. No balance either. I'd better just sit here awhile until I stop shaking. Let's think about this for a bit. They want something that we found. Well, Keet and I have been "finding" a lot of things lately so maybe it's not the flashes. Think girl. What have we been hoarding for the past three months. They did say three months, right? But that's just how long whoever-she-is has been watching us. Yes, it must have been within that period then, because no one would have been watching us to tell.
She
must have told someone who passed it on to them because it doesn't sound like they're together on this one, based on their tone.

Well, Keet found some old books in the basement. He was pretty ecstatic about that, ancient civilizations and the like, especially
The Rise and Fall of the American Empire
,
The Chinese Indo-Brazilian Federation
, and a whole box of even older ones. That's why I call him pup. He's always digging for bones. Ah, there's a giggle. I'm feeling more relaxed now. I found some of Mother's old things. Father tucked them away under the sliderpad. He has a stack of stuff under there so I spent a couple of hours a day for a week swallowing my tears and choosing with my heart. I miss her. Mostly they were items we had as babies. Even though I have no recall of them, I just know they were the treasured ones. And then there is the jewel she used to wear. We found that tucked away in an old box in her room. No one ever went there. Father kept it barricaded. I sent a crabbot through the window though. And finally the flashes. We'll have to go through them all one by one.

It's almost four. Get upstairs now! Father will be awake soon and we've run out of time. Keet's going to hate me for this, but we're off the plan again. I'm not waiting for them to "act swiftly". We'll beat them to it. "Wake up. Shhh. We have to go." My body is shaking again.

"What? Where? What's wrong?"

"I'll explain later. Grab everything. Fake the lump. And hurry." He's wide awake. My panic is showing through. "This is it, Keet. Together."

"Together."

Outside finally. Wait.

Something's missing.

"Where are you going? Eli! You'll wake him up."

"I forgot my dreamcatcher. I'm not leaving without it. It's her last gift." The tears are welling up in my eyes. He understands.

"Be the silent storm. Go!"

Open the door a third. Block it with my bag. Up the stairs. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. N….crap. Skip it. Ten. Quick quick quick. On the mirror. Got it. I can see Keet outside. He looks scared. I have to be strong for him and keep it together and that means focus. What's that? Freeze. Listen. It's too quiet. I don't like this. Phew. There it is, he's snoring. He must have just dropped his glass. Surge like the flood, girl, and don't look back.

"Got it?"

"Got it. He's still out."

Keet's doing well, considering... "Fly like the wind. We have twelve minutes."

And never look back.

Day 2: Late Evening

A
s the mist slowly lifted off the horizon, I sat there in amazement and in a kind of numb state of shock. We finally did it, the months of secret planning and sneaking about have finally paid off and not to mention of course Eli's keen sense of adventure. She truly is the spirited one in our little family.

I wonder what Father was thinking at that very moment. But do I really?

It was a long trip I must say. You would have been proud of us, I can feel it. Luckily, Father was in his usual stupor by the time we squeaked out the back gate—I can always count on him for that. I don't remember whether things were different back then, before your accident, whether you too choked us with fears, but somehow I sense that you didn't. Father seemed to always want to keep you from us; he said you were sick and dangerous, and that's why you were in the hospital. But Eli remembers what happened. She dreams and sometimes she tells me. Mostly all I notice are her bloodshot eyes in the morning after a night of sobbing. We would have taken you with us...if only.

Flip, there goes my fountain again. I still cry when I miss you. "Sorrow is for the weak-hearted" is what Father used to say. I was never good enough or strong enough. Well, maybe he was right. Eli is the natural leader, the bold one, yet I know her true heart as if we were one. Just like I know you despite the little time we were allowed to see you, talk to you, be with you under the watching eye of the GHU. Why did they keep you under such tight surveillance in the psychiatric wing?

As Eli and I descended into the valley, my heart sank with the change in pressure. The trip on the transport was smooth for the most part, but now and again a sharp jolt would wake me from our adventure and fear would set in. Thanks, Father, for that. Would they find us? Would they hunt us down like criminals, like the ones who flee the GHU looking to cheat the inevitable? Would they be waiting for us in Eadonberg? Were they watching us even as I sat gazing into the morning fog? Paranoia claims many victims, and Eli and I are leaping into a new world. Our destiny awaits us in Eadonberg, and you're coming with us, in my heart.

Eli was able to sneak a few catnaps along the way. A welcome break for her I am sure. I for one was unable to relax; plunging into the unknown is not something I do well. In fact, it's not something I do at all. Anyway, there she was, curled up in a ball like a kitten basking in the sun. At times I even thought I could hear her purr, and then the same jolt that would call my attention to my surroundings would catapult her out of her seat. Perhaps she was feeling the darkness through the mist as was I. It wasn't an absence of light as it clearly was daylight, but rather a thickness or weight that was pressing down on us. And so it was with a heavy heart that we left our home, a place of grief, pain, and sorrow, yes, but all that we know and understand in this world.

That last toss, however, had a force so strong as to shatter the window behind us. As I fumbled to check whether my restraints were still intact, I felt a dust storm forming at the rear. It was at that point that I realized what had been causing these reality reminders. The valley had reached the wetlands where the silhouette of a cooling plant was clearly visible against the lime green horizon. The fog had lifted somewhat and was casting its last shadow before the final scattering. Everywhere trees were stripped of their green coats and painted with a yellowish powder. Smoke bombs of sulfur controlled the landscape, and any life form within its grasp for that matter, and we were no exception. Our great escape from a prison of memories had instantaneously transformed into a flight from death. A thick cloud was rolling towards the transport as we raced for the tunnel ahead. This section of the route was normally protected by a biowall but recent cosmic activity had altered the frequency generator's output and was causing sporadic drifts. We were just unfortunate enough to have been caught in one of them.

One final thrust of the accelerator pushed us into the tunnel and we were safe, for a while. Had we known what was awaiting us in Eadonberg, perhaps we would have been content with our lives as they were; I probably could have endured, but I am not so sure about Eli. She has been so lost and confused since you left. She is showing signs of the illness that afflicted you. I feared that if she stayed and continued to fall deeper into it, I would have become incapable of covering for her, and Father would have suspected her condition and have sent her away as he did to you. I cannot bear to, no, I refuse to lose her to that same fate. So there I was, on a path to confront my own fears as we sought out the answers in Eadonberg. At least, that was the plan and Eli's acceptance into the Bioengineering program at Schrödinger University was the break we were looking for.

The movement through the tunnel was lengthy yet smooth. It gave Eli and me some time to calm our senses and observe the other travelers. After all, we had to make sure we had not been followed. Casting furtive glances around at our immediate neighbors, Eli was able to gather useful information. Even though she may appear at first glance to be a rather "nervous" girl, always on the go, she has an incredible eye for detail when the situation calls for it. And this was indeed one of those situations.

Looking back at it now, I wish I had taken more notice of her flinch as she scanned the far end of our section. Under normal circumstances I tend to just chalk it up to her natural tendency to fidget, and that is exactly what I did in that moment. By the time I realized something or someone had caused her to instinctively widen her eyes for a brief instant, whatever it was was no longer visible as the lights grew dim, the ambient temperature dropped, and Eli squeezed my arm for what felt like an eternity.

Some time passed before we could see daylight and leave the tunnel behind, plunged in darkness. Eli was breathing naturally again, yet she remained visibly shaken. I searched her eyes looking for the cause, but all I could see was that all too familiar emptiness after one of her nightmares. She brushed the incident off, in her usual tough girl way, and came up with some random lame explanation, which I pretended to accept. So that is where we left it as we continued the trip in silent contemplation.

When we arrived at our destination, we fumbled our way through the crowd and started looking for an exit. There was a sense of urgency in our pace which seemed to draw attention to us, especially from the direction of the three GMU officers against the scanning wall. It was my turn to quicken my oxygen intake as visions of a clampdown and a quick shove into a transport back home polluted my mind. Surely Father would have noticed our flight by now, but it remained a question as to whether the authorities would give our disappearance any priority. After all, recent events of a more global concern were no doubt more pressing, or so I hoped. In any case, we never got the opportunity to find out. Just as the three officials started towards us, they were distracted by something else which pulled them into a fast pursuit in the opposite direction. As fate would have it, our opportunity appeared and we used the ensuing commotion to slip past the sensors and lose ourselves in the traveling mass.

At last, it was time to test the months of twilight research and memorization against the physical terrain. The underground network we had used to gather painstaking details about our new home ensured we could find our way around easily enough, but the reality of actual experience proved to be quite a different story. While others were going about their daily routine, buzzing around from here to there, in and out of converted 21st century office towers, I was engulfed with a sense of awe and amazement at what I was witnessing around me. I could see Eli busily working with the maps in her mind to get us headed in the right direction, although the wonder in her eyes was also unmistakable. As was the case on the journey inward, if we were not careful, our emotions could betray us, so we tucked away our excitement, shared a quick lock-and-nod, and made our way straight to the hovertrain heading to our final destination. This was not a time to linger.

What happened next is still a whirlwind of memory flashes. I remember navigating a maze of corridors, leading us outside onto what appeared to be a bridge on the edge of the world. Peppering the city, as far as the eye could see, were glass and concrete islands growing out of the water like the groves back at the cooling plant. Some were mirrored, reflecting all that passed, some were beautifully carved with remnants of color from days gone by, some were several stories tall, while others mere platforms with purposefully manicured gardens surrounding crystal structures. Looking down into the depths of the canals, my eyes could vaguely outline the glow of a glass building below the garden directly ahead of us. A rush of heat flowed beneath my skin as I realized what I was looking at, as I realized what had transpired here. Below the city lay a murky graveyard of foundations which were once buildings in their own right, long, long ago. All but the top floors of the highest structures were submerged. The city was all it had claimed to be and more, a testament to the focused resolve of a peaceful civilization determined to survive on a dying planet.

We started walking along a crossway towards a gathering of people standing on a solid surface extending along the main street, if that's what you want to call it. It was more like they were balancing on a floating stone carpet rolled out across a stagnant river and tethered to its bed by an intricate series of hooks and chains. The invisible barrier surrounding the city kept the dangers of the looming horizon at bay, a seemingly sheltered haven of life. We were safe from the natural dangers of the outside world yet vulnerable to the more sinister ones within. And it was precisely those hidden dangers that we had voluntarily thrown ourselves into, although if anyone were to ask us, we would say that the choice was not ours to make. Something other than Father's suffocating tyranny has drawn us to this place. I can sense it though I cannot see it...yet. All I hope at this point is that personal experience will uncover the real truth behind the childhood ghost stories that scare the mind and trap the heart, and more specifically for me, your story, which has been haunting Eli's nights for the past nine years and is now creeping into her waking hours.

As we reached the platform, a rush of hot air skimmed the top of my head and hovered for a moment. I looked up and saw the hull of our ride sucking up its passengers from rings etched into the surface around their feet. Eli on the other hand was looking down, scouring the ground around us, and quickly pulled me towards her when she realized I was straddling the edge of a bright red circle. One split second later, and I would have felt more than just a tiny zap between my legs. Ouch. A buzz through my body followed by a cool sweat gave me a little shake. I shudder to think of what would have happened had I been half caught in the lift. I would have needed to seek medical attention and become an easy target for authorities while lying helpless in the belly of the GHU. I guess the extra three minutes Eli has had on this planet have given her a wisdom I am lacking after all. Once I caught my balance, I looked sheepishly at her, expecting her usual snare face, a funny little contortion she makes when she gets annoyed at me (it's somewhere between a sneer and a stare), but her eyes were fixed on where I had been standing. I touched her shoulder lightly and she jumped as if woken from a trance. It was the dream again, I know it.