hard work and then expect to sleep through it.” She steps forward and I stand up. I tower over her by a good four inches. “I am not having it.” She looks up at me. “What’s your name?” No aches complain or pain blames. There is nothing to suggest I’ve just smacked into a solid substance.
“Saved,” I answer while trying to figure out what is going on. “Is this heaven or the Universe?”
“What a stupid name and even dumber question.” She crosses her arms over her chest pushing them out a little further. “You’re not dead yet. You’re still in Serenity.”
I chuckle at her miffed expression. I can’t help myself. Her rosy lips pucker in disbelief. Where am I? “If you say so; is yours any better?”
“Of course it is. My name is Asorra.” Why didn’t I think of that?
Now that I realize Asorra is a champion of the mouth and not of the fist, it suddenly occurs to me that I’m stark naked. “Do you have clothes for me?” For some reason it doesn’t particularly bother me.
Asorra stares unabashedly at me for a few moments then turns around and walks through a door that opens when she gets near. I follow along behind her out into more whiteness. Periodically doors with a smoky covering appear. “What’s your crime?” Asorra asks.
“Excuse me?”
“What did you do to piss off the High Councilor and his wife and get sent down here?”
She rounds a corner and I try to keep up. “I don’t know, he said something about me being a defect.” We pass five doors before we stop in front of a door. “How do we get out of here?” All this white is making it difficult for me to formulate any ideas about anything. It’s seems to be blinding my inner chi as well.
“You don’t,” she says while waving her hand over the screen. It beeps and she signals for me to do the same. “This is your room for the remainder of your life.” She turns away from me and begins walking. She stops and glances once more. “Just so you know, I see nothing repulsive about you. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes.” Asorra disappears around a corner leaving me smiling and falling into my room. Did she just compliment me?
The room is all white with a white bed and white walls. There are white clothes in a drawer and a screen that makes noise, but I don’t care about how odd these things are; or how advanced this world is. All I care about is finding Purity, making Asorra my friend and, getting everyone to the island. To do that I need a bigger boat and I think I know just the person to show me the right door. Despite the fact that I’ve been thrown down a pit to meet death and awoke to a ferocious beast known as a girl, today’s been a miraculous day. Now it’s time to return the favor. There’s no way the Universe didn’t send me here.
I step outside of my room just as Asorra comes into view. “Good, now you can make-up for your intrusion,” she says. I follow her foot prints to the letter.
We enter a circular room that is filled with large screens. Each one shows a different area. Along the bottom are boards with the letters of the alphabet lined up in three rows. People with various defects sit around the twelve tables pushing the letters down. There is a girl with no arms using her feet to complete her work.
“Princess?” A man calls. His left ear is missing. “Mr. Chase and Miss Holden are getting near again, shall I avert them?”
Asorra storms forward and clicks a button. The events on one of the smaller screens appear on the larger central screen. A very dark complexioned boy is walking slowly towards a pale red head. They circle each other smiling but do not say anything, nor do they move away. “Argh!” Asorra roars. “When will these two learn? They are never going to be together.” Asorra turns to the man. “Cecil, write; good evening Mr. Chase, Good evening Ms. Holden. Return to your separate homes.”
Cecil, the earless, furiously hacks at the letters on the board. The girl with the red hair on the screen speaks with a sweet voice and smiles. The gruff boy mirrors her expression and they both walk away from one another in different directions.
A clicking sound showcases a circular podium. On it appears to be some sort of yellow substance with tiny round purple balls and a large bottle. Asorra walks over to it, removes the tray, and watches the podium retract.
“Well done Asorra, enjoy a treat on my behalf,” an invisible voice says.
Asorra rolls her eyes and lifts the tray in the air. “Cecil, take this to the common room and share it with the others.” Cecil’s eyes brighten and he gently removes the tray from her grasps, then like hungry animals all of them flock towards the door, shoving and pushing one another.
Asorra turns her attention back to the blank screen and says nothing. “What’s all of this?” I ask.
She doesn’t look at me when she answers, but goes around clicking various buttons at the twelve stations. “In Serenity the high councilor and his wife believe that the inhabitants need guidance. After the Great Cleanse, the adults were too stuck in there ways. So they waited until they had children and killed their parents.” Asorra slumps into a chair. Good thing I told Purity not to struggle. “The perfect babies remained on top, the defects were sent down here to die. Many of them did.” Asorra rubs her face. “My mother created this underground haven, and saved the babies. I am the imperfect daughter of the High Councilor. My relation to him is the only reason I’m alive.”
“Whatever you write, they have to follow?” I ask her.
“Yes, they hear the command. Every morning when they wake-up their scripts are automatically downloaded. Their actions, conversations, and reactions are all written by me. If they do not comply their brain will receive a small electrical shock that is highly painful.” Asorra rubs her hands together and looks away. There is absolutely nothing to say about this, so I just shake my head. “There are five separate cities. The one you just saw is known as Dance City, it’s where all the entertainers live.” Asorra clicks a button, and a screen showing both men and woman walking hastily, in white suits, to large buildings, appears. “There is the Business City, where all the pointless companies exist.” Another screen showcases walls of gardens and people walking around with boards in their hands. “Nutrition City, these people mess around with our food.” Another screen appears that resembles the scientist room from Horizon. “Innovation City, all the brains and their families live here.” Asorra clicks the button again and a white room filled with boxes that healed Purity, light the screen.” Medical City, doctors and scientist live here.” One more screen appears showing people laughing with cups in their hands. They sit in a colorful low lit room. “This is the high society town. The high councilor chooses who he wants to release from the program and they become his friends.”
I walk around the room gauging the foreign buttons and blinking screens. There is a big red button that says emergency stop on it and I walk by trying not to appear evident. These worlds are pure madness.
Something she said earlier surfaces through the hysteria of information. “Does the High Councilor know about the others?”
“Maybe,” she answers. “If he does, he doesn’t let on.” Asorra nears me. “They keep me too busy to spy on them.” Her face hardens and she slaps me on the arm like Mama used to do. I rub it and smile at the similarity. “Then you show up and force me to write a script for another person. Now I have to write reactions and explanations for the new comer and give him a job.”
“Is that why you are boiling over, because of something new?” I ask. “You should be thanking me for mixing it up.”
Asorra scowls at me without saying a word. Her face is getting so red that I almost mistake her for a delicious apple. She walks over to a door and it opens. She enters what looks like a bedroom. There isn’t any time for politeness or privacy; I need to find a way to shut down this system, and get us out of here. So I burry all manors and walk in behind her. Along the wall are cans similar to the one Cecil took.
“I need to get out of here,” I say, while inching over to the stack of food. “There are people depending on me to help them. Their homes are being devastated by earthquakes.”
Asorra nearly burns a whole in my head with her eyes. “There’s no way out.” She turns and walks back to the door. Just as she pauses, I snatch a can and put it in my pocket. Asorra’s annoyed expression and waving hands drive me out of the door. I don’t believe her. If she won’t help, I’m sure there is someone who will tell me how to get out of here in exchange for a can of satiation.
Chapter 11
I find Cecil and the others in yet another white room that has four silver tables. They devour the yellow
