Chapter Three
The ride down took about half an hour, during which time the details on the ground became clearer and all the more alluring.
Everything seemed so alien compared to the city.
Harbour towered above us, dominating the view to the north. The sheer scope of the city was beyond comprehension, it blocked out the sun and overshadowed the landscape for miles around. The Wall itself was a smooth, sand-coloured mass that stretched, without interruption, so high it was hard to make out the top.
The tops of the skyscrapers glinted and sparkled in the midday sun high above us, sending rainbows of light dancing out across the bright, blue sky. I tried to imagine what it must be like to live in an apartment with a real window and a view over The Wall with the sun shining in every day.
Sighing, I turned my attention back to the valley filled with structures from the old world. I felt slightly dizzy.
The cable car finally slowed and started to turn into a big, barren area. The door slid open and we all stumbled out, a little lost for words. Artie gathered us together and handed out GPS devices. The open sky spread out above us as far as I could see. We never really got to look at it in the city with so many buildings blocking the view and I kept glancing up as if it might disappear.
"Each of these is preprogrammed with your individual search zone highlighted. Follow the directions on screen to get to your zone then search that area thoroughly. We need soil samples from six locations within your area and swabs taken inside and outside of the houses. You're encouraged to explore and report anything that strikes you as out of place or strange.
Take a pack with your test equipment and we'll meet back here in two hours. Read through your instruction booklet. The pack also contains your radio so you can check in with us at any time. Make sure to check back if you encounter any trouble. Have fun, but remember that this is important work." Artie smiled at the collected group. "Any questions?"
Everyone shook their heads.
"Great. Striving forward together," he said in dismissal.
"For the good of the population," everyone chanted back with extra enthusiasm.
I thumbed through the instructions quickly. There was a lot about protocol and what to do in case of an emergency. As far as I could gather the message was to radio back if anything went wrong. Then there was a lengthy reminder about the risks of contamination and our duty to the safety of the population. Blah blah blah. I shut the booklet and Taylor collected our pack while I studied our route on the GPS.
"Seeing as you're so insanely manly now, I'll let you carry that." I smiled and started heading south, trusting Taylor's long legs to help him catch up.
Within moments he fell into pace next to me just as we crested a hill. My mouth fell open.
The stark landscape suddenly gave way to a valley, filled with the strange box-shaped buildings. They were all about three or four times as tall as me but no more than that.
"Is this where they lived?" Taylor asked.
"I guess so. How many people do you reckon they housed? They look big enough for fifteen," I said, studying the small buildings.
"Or more - maybe even twenty? Are they like little apartment blocks? How are they split? I only see one door," Taylor said.
"The GPS says we have another mile to walk before we reach our search area," I said, glancing at it.
"Okay. Let's get going then." Taylor grabbed my hand and led me down into the valley, nearly at a run. I laughed as a rush of adrenaline flooded my veins and hurried to keep up with his longer stride.
We didn't keep up the pace for long. There was too much to look at. The buildings continued in rows on either side of us, clearly built around the roads we were walking down.
It felt weird to walk on broken concrete instead of smooth glass and I kept stumbling on the rough terrain.
The structures were all different shapes and sizes and stood alone with big patches of empty, dust-filled space around them. It was beautiful and strange and so open, I couldn't think of a place more different from the city I'd grown up in.
It was impossible to imagine the way people must have lived before. With the sky open above them and clean, fresh air flowing unfiltered around them. There were no rules about where you could go or when. They didn't have to worry about walking for twenty minutes just to find out a building had reached its capacity and you couldn't go in.
They didn't have to get permission to buy food for guests or spend the night at a friend's house. They probably didn't have to be poked and prodded by doctors every month or injected with contraceptives even though you were adamant you didn't need them. I doubted they even had to get permission to have babies.
There was a plastic sign in front of one house that read 'for sale'. I frowned as I looked at it.
"What's for sale?" I asked.
Taylor glanced at it too. He kicked the ground beneath the post that held it in place then looked beyond it to the building.
"Maybe the house?" he asked doubtfully.
"You think they could pick where they lived?" I asked.
"Why not? There's plenty of options," Taylor shrugged.
I bit my lip as I considered it and Taylor lead me on again. My parents had been promoted twice while I was growing up. Both times we had been escorted to a new apartment on a higher floor. When I was sent to live on forty, I was escorted there too. They even moved our things for us. We never had a choice. I couldn't imagine having a choice.
In front of a lot of the houses were rusted metal vehicles with fraying seats inside them. They sat on wheels which had deflated and corroded. The rubber was the only thing that still held its colour. Everything else was faded and ruined but the tyres were pitch black.
"Cars," I said, pausing to look at one more closely.
"Huh?" Taylor tore his eyes away from one of the houses to follow my gaze.
"That's why the road is so big: for the cars." I pointed but Taylor still looked blank. He'd never taken as much interest in Old World classes as I did. "They used them to get around. Like the Warden buggies, but bigger."
They didn't look anything like the images I'd studied; shiny vehicles that zipped along at high speeds on big, rubber wheels. The decaying remains they left behind after nearly a hundred years were barely recognisable.
"What's this?" Taylor asked, walking up to a large, brown column standing alone in front of one of the houses.
The base of it sprouted from the ground and the top split into countless smaller pieces which pointed in all different directions. I ran my hand over the surface of it. It felt rough and flakey through the sensitive pads on my glove. There was a carving in the shape of a heart with the initials K S + M R on one side of the thick column at eye level.
"I think this is, or was, a tree," I said slowly.
"I thought they were green?"
"The tops were green but the bottoms were brown. Besides, this one must have been dead for at least seventy years. The green goes away when they die."
"I don't see how something like this-" Taylor knocked his fist against the tree, "-could cause so much trouble."
"You know it was more complicated than that. And anyway, it looks like they dealt with this one pretty thoroughly," I said, as I rapped my knuckles against the hollow wood too.
"We're here, look." He pointed at the GPS in my hand. A green line had appeared on the screen marking the start of our search area.
We turned to look at a standard, two story structure with a faded red front door and big windows smeared with dust. There was a little white fence ringing the patch of ground outside. It had fallen down in places and some of the slats had broken. A dust-covered path led to the door, cutting a line through the barren ground.
We moved towards it and stopped in front of the door.
"So, how does it work?" I asked, looking about for a retinal scanner.
"Oh look, fingerprint scanner," Taylor said, putting his gloved finger onto a round button by the door.
br /> Nothing happened, no surprise there.
The door had a wooden knob that protruded from its centre and I reached out to tug on it. It didn't move so I braced my feet and pulled harder.
"A little help?" I asked Taylor and he moved to take my place.
He grasped the handle and yanked on it. It still didn't budge so he did it again. A wrenching sound filled the air and the whole thing broke off in his hand. He tumbled backwards from the momentum and collided with me.
We fell, sprawling into the dust and I cursed at him.
"Sorry." Taylor tossed the rotten doorknob aside and turned to help me back to my feet. Our white suits were decidedly brown and I brushed uselessly at the dirt. It refused to budge.
I turned back to the door with a huff of irritation. It had a round hole in its centre. Slowly, it started to drift inwards.
I looked at Taylor and sighed. "We probably should have tried pushing it before breaking it," I said.
The hinges squealed in protest after years of immobility and the door stopped moving.
"I don't see any ID screens or scanners or anything," I commented.
"But there could be anyone out here. They wouldn't have even been able to tell until they opened the door. I could be an axe murderer," Taylor said indignantly.
"The wonders of modern technology; axe murderer deaths must have halved overnight when the scanners came along." I grinned and moved cautiously towards the building again.
This time I pushed on the door itself and it swung inward without further protest.
It revealed a hallway with more doors on either side and a staircase leading up to the next level. I approached the first door on the left of the hall and it swung open easily.
"Look at this," Taylor called from the front door. "It was locked." From this side of the door it was clear that it had been forced open at some point. The frame was splintered and shattered and the metal bolt on the lock was bent out of shape.
"I suppose they had to be sure everyone made it out safely before they poisoned everything," I said slowly.
Splinters from the broken wood littered the floor and a small table was knocked aside, blocking the hallway. Its contents were scattered across the carpet.
I continued into the next room, stepping over the broken remains of a table lamp. Glass crunched beneath my boots.
The room was big and spacious. Cupboards topped with smooth counters lined the walls but the centre of the room was empty. A round table was pushed into one corner with four chairs placed around it haphazardly, one of them laying on its side on the floor. I moved further inside slowly. I had the strangest sense that someone had just left the room despite the clear evidence to the contrary.
The wall that ran along the front of the house held a huge window which looked back out towards the street. There was a stainless steel sink beneath the window and I walked towards it. It was filled with plates and cups coated in a layer of brown sludge. I wrinkled my nose at the unappealing sight.
Thick dust coated everything, deadening every sound I made and making the place eerily quiet. My movements created a muffled crunching. It felt like I had a pillow pressed over my ears.
I moved around the room, opening cupboard doors, pulling out boxes and tins and placing them on the counter.
"So you think it's okay that they busted into people's houses even if they didn't want to leave?" Taylor asked, following me.
"I dunno T, but if the place was being poisoned they wouldn't really get a choice would they?"
He stopped to survey the room as I tugged at a ring-pull on the top of a can. The label had deteriorated to the point that I couldn't read it but the can itself had stayed sealed.
"What is it?" Taylor asked, peering over my shoulder at the contents of the can as I poured it onto the counter. A handful of glistening yellow sweetcorn tumbled out in a river of juice. It looked good enough to eat.
"Dare you to try some." I shook the can at him.
"I would, but unfortunately I'm not allowed to take my helmet off," he said, rapping his fingers against his visor.
"That's handy," I said, turning away from the mess I'd made.
"Wait a minute, where's the bed?" Taylor asked abruptly, turning on the spot to take in the whole room.
"I don't think there is one," I said.
"Did they sleep on the floor then?" He was moving the chairs aside as if they were somehow concealing it.
"I don't think so."
He stood up straight and moved to the counter by the window.
"What is this stuff?" He picked up a box that I had taken from a cupboard and shook it, listening to the satisfying rattle.
"More food, I think. Look, there's a picture of a kid eating on the front." He turned the box over to look at the faded picture.
"But this is enough food for weeks," he said pointing around at the stash.
"It must have been normal. Look at this - 'food waste.'" I'd found a cupboard with big empty plastic bins inside.
"They wasted food?" The look of incredulity on his face made me laugh.
"It was a different time. I guess it wasn't in such short supply back then." We studied the stash a while longer, pouring some things onto the counter and trying to guess what they might have tasted like. "Let's check out the rest of this place," Taylor said eventually, moving back out into the hallway.
The next room was full of big, squashy chairs all pointed towards a screen in one corner. Taylor jumped on one of them and the dust billowed up in a cloud that filled the room while I laughed.
There was a shelving unit to one side of the room but most of its contents had been knocked to the floor. The walls were full of framed pictures of what appeared to be a family: a mother, father, a boy and an older girl. The children had been captured at various ages coming to an end with what looked like teenage years.
I picked up a photograph of them posing in front of the building that we were standing in. The girl was strikingly attractive, long brunette hair, a stubborn set to her jaw with full lips and eyes that were deep and dark, surrounded by long lashes.
The boy was younger but not by much. He was fair haired and had tougher, stronger features but all similar enough to the girl's to mark them clearly as siblings. He was taller and much broader too but with some lasting boyishness about him.
They looked happy. Like they had actually been caught laughing rather than just fake smiling for the camera.
The house was only recognisable by its shape. It looked warm and inviting with lights twinkling from the upper windows rather than abandoned and in disrepair. The brown dust-filled space in front had been a green carpet of small plants peppered with little white flowers. The huge tree stood sentinel with a crown of green leaves and a rich, deep brown trunk which had faded to a much dimmer colour with the passage of time.
"She looks like you," Taylor said, peering at the picture over my shoulder.
"Don't be absurd, she's gorgeous," I laughed.
"Yeah and she looks like you. Same mouth, something about the eyes, though not the colour."
"Maybe I have a long lost sister who got all the genetic makeup for looks while I was blessed with a natural ability for tripping over my own feet. Lucky me," I said, scathingly.
"You don't see yourself very accurately," Taylor said, quietly.
"Maybe you don't either. Your years of enduring my face have made you immune to the plainness of it."
"You don't look like you did when we were children anymore. You're different." He stared into my eyes for a moment longer than was comfortable.
"I still feel the same," I said, punching him playfully in the arm and placing the photo back on the shelf amid a solid inch of dust. "Besides, she must be practically a hundred now if she even survived."
I pushed past Taylor who seemed to have something further to add, and darted up the stairs.
"You check that other room down there and I'll see what's up here," I called back, glad to put so
me distance between us.
The second storey of the house was filled by four rooms. One was the most extravagant wash area I had ever seen. It had a huge shower, massive tub, a toilet and two sinks with space all around them which seemed to serve no purpose at all. The effect was only ruined slightly by the green-tinged puddle that occupied the base of the tub.
I turned to leave and noticed a strange mark on the doorframe. It was a hand print. I leaned closer to get a better look and realised it was made with blood. I gasped and took a step backwards. As I looked at the wooden floor, I could see that more splashes led in a trail down the stairs. It had dried to a dark brown and was hidden amid the grain of the wooden floor but I could see that there had been a lot of it.
I repressed a shudder and moved towards another door on the landing.
As I entered the next room, I was relieved to find something that resembled an apartment from the city. The bed was still in place, though the covers were in a heap on the floor. It was designed to sleep two people and there was a little shower room in a recess to the right of the door. A few of the drawers were open with their contents spilling out.
I moved across to lift the bed and see how the room looked once it was out of the way.
I fumbled for the release catch for a while then dropped down to lay on the floor and look for it when I couldn't locate anything. Under the bed was darkness. The light filtering through the filthy windows couldn't illuminate the shadows beneath it.
I still couldn't find a release so I braced my shoulder against the floor and shoved upwards. A cloud of dust dislodged and fell over my visor. I turned my head to the side automatically even though the helmet kept it away from my eyes. I heaved again and saw something move in the space beneath the bed.
There was no way that anything was still alive out here but I stopped, my heart pounding, as the shadows shifted and I made out a shape in the darkness. After a few seconds, nothing more happened so I wriggled forwards, reaching towards the place where I had spotted the movement.
There wasn't much room under the bed and it scraped along my back as I pressed forwards, my hand sweeping from side to side ahead of me.
I felt something brush my fingertips as I squinted into the shadows. I reached out again, grasping towards the source of the movement.
Whatever it was was still out of reach so I scrambled backwards and regained my feet, grabbed hold of the bed and wrenched it upwards.
It was much heavier than I'd expected. I managed to get it about a foot off the ground before I realised it wasn't going to fold against the wall and let it fall back to the floor with a thud.
Something was knocked out from under it and collided with my boot, I yelled out in surprise and stumbled backwards. The thing didn't move again, so I stepped forward cautiously and nudged it with my toe. It was a little black bear with a faded red label hanging from its ear.
I reached out to pick it up.
The bear looked happy, his string mouth turned up at the corners. I brushed some of the dust from him and inspected the label. It opened to reveal a message. 'I love you to the moon and back.' It made me smile. That was something my mom always used to say to me. I clutched him to my chest and turned to continue the search.
The other two rooms were both large sleeping areas too. They seemed to be designed with no real purpose other than sleep and clothes storage. All of the rooms had been left in a state of disarray with drawers turned out and a variety of possessions cluttering the floor. They each held single beds which brought my count up to four. Nowhere near our estimate of fifteen residents.
The second room was clearly filled with the belongings of the teenage girl. A large dressing table took up most of the space beside the bed and it was crammed with her things. Pictures of her with various friends were stuck all around the edge of a big mirror alongside ticket stubs for films and bands. The table was cluttered with lipsticks, nail varnishes and bottles of perfume. Things that must have been far more widely available when she was alive.
I lifted the lid of a large wooden box which occupied the middle of the table. Inside was a horde of jewellery: rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets. They had been preserved from the dust by the box and they sparkled in the faint light.
Even when I lived with my parents we never had the money for jewellery though my mom had a few pieces. She had promised me something for my sixteenth birthday but she didn't live to see it. They called to me in a way I couldn't resist and I thumbed through them greedily.
Sighing, I let the lid close on the box and started to turn away from the table. Something caught on my boot and I looked down to see a piece of paper on the floor. I scooped it up and unfolded it. The writing looked hurried and was blurred in places. It took me a moment to decipher it.
Kaitlyn. Your father and I have been selected, they've come to take us to the city. There's isn't much time and they won't let us wait for you. Find Reese and get to the waiting zone. We'll be able to get you accepted too, but you have to be there.
The hordes are heading towards the city and they'll be here soon. If you can't get there before they have to close it, stay together and find somewhere defendable. They say the phones should start working again soon.
I love you. Please hurry.