XIII
I slept well for the first time in years. Though near morning I had a dream of huge explosions killing everyone I knew. I woke, feeling good despite the dream. For a few seconds I wondered why I would be feeling good at all. I was just about to go down for my morning Nutrition before realizing that I didn’t eat that anymore. It was the greatest feeling ever to know that I didn’t have to eat that. I jumped out of bed and jumped for joy a few times before falling back to the bed. When there was a knock on the door I didn’t feel anxious, I simply went to the door and opened it without a care in the world. The man there came straight into the room.
“Good morning, Hardin, I am Calrus and am here to take a look at that bracelet. I also brought some clothes for you to wear. Your current ones look a bit worn.”
“We are only allowed three pairs.” I had no idea why I said that. It was too personal to tell someone I just met.
He didn’t seem to hear me. “I listened to the audio from your conversation with the mayor, and so I know your predicament. I was wondering if you knew where this bracelet actually came from.”
I didn’t like how he knew everything about me already. “The Cityers probably made it, they have made new weapons recently: guns, grenades, they even have meat.”
“From a country living in the dome?”
“Dome?”
“Yes, well the wall is actually a dome. It’s just that the name stuck.”
“The Cityers have been working, getting things done while the Humurom’s are just wasting away, not trying to improve life.”
“Very sad, but what I mean is, the wall is a computer program, constantly being run by a giant computer. It can only be altered if the computer alters it. So how did the Cityers come up with something that could alter it?”
“You would know better than me. I couldn’t understand most of what you said. What I did get is that you know enough to make something yourself to get in.”
“Originally we could not do it because we did not have access to many of the computers. You see there are countries that surround the dome, and they all had computers in the network and each computer had a specific code to control a tiny piece of the dome. They all had to agree in order to bring the dome down. Since they did not put in a code to allow entrance we could not get in. They feared that entrance would equal exit, and so thought the wall would not withstand the blasts. About one hundred years ago all computers were wired into one super computer. They hoped that this super computer would replace the many, and it did. Every country put their codes into a key, creating five keys. One country had some of their computers die before they could get the codes and so we do not have all the codes and so cannot get in.”
“I am having trouble keeping up.” I only understood about one tenth of what he said.
He laughed. “Never mind this, we’ll figure out this bracelet’s secrets. Get dressed. Someone is waiting downstairs to show you around.”
“Around Azureland?”
“Yes, I hear you’ll be staying with us for a while. You might as well learn your way around.”
“Am I still needed?”
“Oh, yes, everyone is really excited to learn everything you can tell us. I’ll probably be seeing you tonight with my first tests done, so see you then.”
Calrus left. The clothing consisted of a gray shirt and pants – much nicer than mine, a large white coat and black shoes. I changed into them and looked at myself in the mirror in the adjoining bathroom. I looked like one of the people from the paintings in the Files Office. The bathroom wasn’t too hard to figure out, though the noise from the toilet scared me a little. In Humurom we had people to take our waste away. I don’t know where it went. Someone left a razor out. I shaved; thankful it wasn’t the thin sheet of metal I used at home. I found myself comparing every little thing to Humurom.
I left the room to go downstairs. I wandered down the hall. Doors similar to mine were on both sides. I turned a corner and heard a voice down the hall. I stopped. Something about this man’s tone unnerved me. I had heard it before. He was nervous and scared.
“I know they know something, they have to.” The man said.
I peeked around the corner at him. He was a little shorter than I was. He wore a black suit and had a short beard. It looked more like he had forgotten to shave for a few days. It looked as though he was staring at the wall, but I heard a voice answer him.
“Don’t worry, sir. I promise you they don’t know anything.”
“Excuse me? Do you think I’m wrong about this?”
“No, sir.”
“All the evidence points to it being here.”
I was becoming scared. He sounded almost paranoid from fear. I turned and went back down the hall I had come, not wanting to hear anymore. Across from my room was a strange door. Beside it was a sign: Push to go down. I did as I was told. There was a ding and the door opened, revealing a small closet like room. I entered. The door closed on me. For a moment I was certain I had made a mistake and was trapped. Then I noticed more buttons, each with something beside it. Mezza, B1, B2, 1, 2, 3, 4. The down that I was promised on the outside was nowhere to be seen. I hit the button next to 4 and hoped it would take me down. In hindsight I suppose it wasn’t very smart to hit the highest number present and be surprised to go up. The door opened again. I was at the very top of the building’s dome. There were only pillars, no walls, and I could see out across the whole city. It was huge. In one direction was the wall – or dome. It went straight up to the sky, disappearing in the clouds. The opposite direction showed the city ending and a barren green landscape after that.
I got back into the moving box and tried B2. It took me to a room full of the strange automobiles I had seen the day before. Then Mezza was attempted. I ended up in a large room that looked like the entrance except there were chairs and a lot of people mulling about. This seemed right to me. If anybody needed me I’m sure they could find me there. I took a seat on a very comfortable couch and waited. Before long a girl about my age came up. She wore a yellow coat. I enjoyed the variety of dress.
“Hardin?” She asked. She had blonde hair and dark, almost black, eyes.
“Yes.”
She smiled brightly. “I could tell. I’m Nara; it’s nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you.” I said uncertainly.
“Are you hungry? Come on, the café just opened.”
She turned and walked away without even waiting for an answer. I got up and followed. There was something about her I liked, it was something about how happy she was; I wasn’t used to that sort of behavior.
The café was attached to the side of the building. It had tables set out all over and was very crowded. It smelled of an assortment of food, I wanted very much to try it all. We got a small table in a corner next to a window where we could watch all the people walking by. Two plastic rectangles were already on the table, they had a list of food available for purchase. It was strange to see prices attached to food; I really did feel like I was transported into one of the books I read.
Nara noticed me struggling with the different names. “I don’t guess you’ve had any of this, have you?”
“I doubt it, but I’m pretty sure I’ll eat any of it.”
A lady came by and asked us what we wanted. Nara ordered us both an omelet. She then spent the next few minutes explaining to me what it was. The food came. The omelet was a lot better than Nara made it out to be.
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to answer them.”
There weren’t too many things I wanted to know at the time. I liked figuring things out as they came to me. “Who are you? I mean, what do you do?”
She put her fork down and crossed her arms. “I used to work as a secretary for the mayor. Now I run errands for him.”
“I’m an errand?”
I meant it as a joke, but
she thought I was serious. “Don’t think of it like that. Here, let’s go look around outside.”
We left the café and started down the street. It was really cold out, but the coat I was wearing kept me warm. She pointed out places she thought were interesting and I pretended to know what she was talking about. She told me about the people on the streets and why they were dressed the way they were. Different jobs meant different outfits. The people in charge of selling food wore simple uniforms, different for each place they worked. The government workers wore nice clothes, usually with jackets and nice pants. I lost track of the others she said, she went through so many.
“Is there anything like this inside the wall?” She asked.
I almost laughed at the thought. “Not at all, I read about buildings but never actually saw any until now.”
“Things have changed a lot in that amount of time. But having no buildings, that’s strange. I know there were some before the wall.”
“Everything was destroyed. We did have a church though, but it eventually fell to.”
It was several minutes before she spoke again. “How much did you know about life outside the wall?”
“We didn’t know about the wall.”
“How did you not notice that?”
“We were too scared to explore. My team and I only got permission to leave for more than one day because things were getting so desperate. I really wanted to make peace with the Cityers; that was the main reason for going.”
“How so?”
“Well . . . we struggled.”
“Sorry,” She said quickly, “I shouldn’t have asked.”
I waited for several people to pass between us on the crowded street. “It’s alright, I’d be curious to.”
“I’m sure you have loads of questions about here.” She already said that, I think she was getting nervous about something.
“I don’t even know where to start. Maybe it would be best if you started telling me things about this city.”
“Ok, um, I’m not very good at this. But . . . uh, this city was built up around the wall. The person who founded the city thought it would become a tourist destination, and he was right.”
“How bizarre.” I imagined what my team would say if they knew they were living in a tourist attraction. It was only the second time that I really thought about them since getting to Azureland. I wondered how they were, what they were doing, if they made it back alright, or if they were still looking for me. And what of Mama? She would still be at home eating Nutrition. Not being able to leave the residence. This brought my excitement down. I worried about them and hoped they were all alright. “Does this place have a name?”
“Wall City.”
“How creative.”
She nodded. “They weren’t very imaginative back then.”
“Was this country in any way connected to Humurom?”
She scrunched up her face in concentration. “Well . . . it bordered Bozlin, but I think there was trade.”
I looked up at the blue sky and bright sun, loving the feeling of the air. “You know what’s weird? All my life I’ve wanted to be in a world with blue skies and bright sun, but now that I’m here I find that I can’t enjoy it properly.”
She looked put out. “Why not?”
“It’s too much. My mother is sick back home. My team is in there somewhere and I have no idea what’s going on. It’s just that I’m a little stressed.” I figured that she already knew all about me so I didn’t mind sharing that information.
“I’m sorry; I didn’t know it was like that. You hide your stress very well.”
We walked through a grassy park with trees and small animals running about. My first thought was how easy it would be to kill one. I wished we had them back near Humurom. People were running about, and I don’t even think they were being chased. “Hey,” I said; an idea popped into my head, “are your medics any good?”
“Yeah, we have a lot of machines that could help anyone with any illness.”
“Really?”
“What does your mother have?”
“I don’t know, our medics don’t have anything to diagnose correctly. They’ve guessed, but I really don’t trust them with her.”
“It’s too bad you can’t get her here.”
I stopped; several runners had to quickly change direction so they didn’t run me over. My mind ran with the possibilities. “What if I could . . .?”
She stopped as well. “How?”
I couldn’t hold in my excitement. The solution to my problem was all around me. “I got here. It would be very dangerous, and she’s very sick. But imagine if I could get her; she would get better in no time.” I was just about in hysterics, I was so relieved. “The only problem is getting her past the Cityers, but I bet people here have things – weapons that I could use, right? They could come: warriors, fighters, we could finally beat them.”
“The Bozlins?” She wasn’t nearly as excited as I was about my new plan.
“Yes, the Bozlins.”
“I thought you wanted to make peace with them.”
“I did when I thought it was the only way to make things better. But now, now we don’t need to. Now I realize that they are just murderers.”
Nara frowned. “That’s a quick change in attitude.”
“I’m not as desperate.” We started walking again. “If I can get a few more of those bracelets than I’m good to go. Trust me; I don’t mind leaving the Cityers in there after what they’ve done.”
Nara didn’t speak for a while. She looked as though she was trying to figure out some way to argue my decision. “Maybe they have a reason to do what they were doing.”
I put my hands in my pockets, they were getting really cold. “I don’t care anymore. I don’t need to.”
“Alright then, when do you want to go?” She said sarcastically.
“As soon as I can get the bracelet back and find some people to help. I’m afraid that if I stay too long than I won’t want to go back at all.”
“You haven’t even seen anything yet.”
“Oh yeah, you’re right. Lead the way.” I was so happy that I didn’t care where we went or what we did. I couldn’t wait to get Mama to Azureland; she would have such a good time there.
Everything was different now. My mood was so improved that all the wonder around me finally sank in. I looked up at all the tall buildings and was properly astonished at their size and structure. The people I passed were so nice, some said “hello” to me and I said “hello” to them. Each one had a huge smile on their face when they saw me. Nara led me all over Wall City with a running commentary, though I don’t remember much of what she said. I spent most of my time imagining what Mama or Stud would be doing if they were there with me. Stud and I would be going through the shops and looking at all the new fashion trends, glad that we didn’t have to wear gray anymore. Mama and I would probably be sitting in the park, watching all the little fuzzy animals running about.
As evening approached my glee faded slightly due to fatigue and overexposure to the sensation of constantly being excited. I tried to hold on to it as long as I could, but by the time Nara started leading me back I was simply content. Deep within I found myself missing the people back home, and even wanted to hear the patter of footsteps on metal. It was bizarre to miss that horrible place, but it was all I knew. I remembered the paintings and the admiration I felt for the people who painted them. I didn’t need to anymore; I had made it to their world and saw what they saw. The greatness that I thought would come from being in a city was nowhere to be found anymore. The feeling that I needed to get out of Humurom that came from the paintings was gone, replaced by the feeling of need to get my mother and friends out of the dome. It actually felt good to have a goal again, and this one actually had an ending to it and didn’t run solely on hope.
“It’s not exactly as I imagined it would be.”
I said on our way back that evening.
She smiled. “I thought the same thing when I came here. It took me a while to get used to it.”
“Where are you from?”
“The country; out in the middle of nowhere really. It’s not the same here, so many people don’t care about anything; they just live.”
“We have people like that in Humurom. They can’t seem to see very far down the road. It’s like they don’t care about what they leave behind. I wanted to fight that kind of thinking, that’s why I’m here now.”
“People are people.” She said wisely.
“Possibly, but if we can show them that good things can happen maybe they would believe it.”
“How do you do that?”
“By making progress first and then telling them about it?
“By lying.”
I laughed. “Wow, people really are people.”
The sun sank below the horizon, bringing in the night. The sparkly lights I had seen from my window the night before appeared all around. The mood was perfect; the world was calm; moving slowly to an unheard beat. I smiled slyly, knowing how lucky I was. Nara added an extra spring to her step, occasionally twirling around in the darkness. She said the early night was her favorite time of day, everything was so peaceful. I agreed wholeheartedly.
My mind and body were so tired by that point that all I wanted to do was rest for the journey home the next day. We entered the building through the empty entrance hall and went up the stairs. I told Nara about my problems with the moving closet. She told me it was called an elevator, and that it was a lot less intimidating than I had come to believe. She had to show me to my room because I had already forgotten which one it was.
Calrus was sitting on my bed waiting; he had on a white scientist’s uniform. “Oh, good,” he got up from the bed, “have a nice day?”
“Yes.” I said, expecting to hear good news.
“Wonderful, now I have some news on the bracelets. I believe that we can reverse engineer them to create others. The only problem is that it will take a while. So you will be stuck here until we can accomplish this.”
It felt as though the floor had fallen out from under me. “What? No, I was going to go back and get my mother. She is very sick and needs the medics here.”
“I’m sorry but we cannot risk sending you back in until we have more bracelets. And besides, you cannot get her out unless you have more than one.”
“I can go back in and try to find more.” I pleaded.
“It’s too dangerous, you could get killed and our way in would be lost.”
“The Cityers created these, I’m sure more people are going to come out.”
“This might be the only one.” He pointed out.
“I found it on the ground; I sure hope that’s not how they treat something that’s one of a kind.”
He sighed. “Whatever the case is you have to stay for a while, and I promise that as soon as we finish you can have this one, and another. In the meantime I have talked with Gilik and he says that you can make a journey to see the whole country. That should keep you busy. We now have to find someone to go with you.”
Nara shot her hand up. “I’ll do it.”
Calrus and I both looked at her. “Splendid, now good night to you both.” With that he left the room.
I collapsed onto the bed. “Now what? I can’t just wait around.”
“It’s alright; Calrus will finish in no time.”
“My mother may not have any time.”
“Don’t worry, everything will work out.”
I found myself being comforted slightly in her optimism, but I knew that in reality there was only a limited amount of time for my plan to work. Nara left a short while later. The man with the food came back and gave me more beef. It was good, but I couldn’t enjoy it very much. It felt terrible to have nothing constructive to do. I wasn’t very good at wasting time, though I suppose I was going to have to try.