“Neither did the United States of America. But you don’t see me curled up on a moldy rock, sobbing and moping. Aren’t you running out of daylight?”
Irritation jolts her body like an electric shock. Can’t he be wrong, just this once? Kaarina gets up and counts to ten. She hopes that this time she’ll succeed in holding back the insult lingering on her tongue. It’s not that she wants to be a dick to Bill. It’s just that there’s no one else around these days. Bill gets all of it: the good moods and the bad.
Back on her feet, she hisses to the American man who babbles in her head. “Please find somewhere else to be, would you?? I’m not sobbing or moaning or whining or crying. I needed a breather, is that too much to ask? Quit tapping me, Bill. Go play with one of your toy boys, or make another cheesecake, or whatever it is you do when you’re not harassing me.”
Her words come out too callous, too strong. Though he’s all-knowing and unbelievably annoying, Bill’s only trying to help. To keep her going, to get her safely into the city and back. But why does he have to push her buttons—all the wrong ones, all the time?
Shoes sinking into the mucky ground, she listens to her body, her mind. She’s alone. Bill’s gone, most likely butt-hurt and beyond grumpy. Sulking in his luxury house, high up in the mountains. Slicing avocados and peeling oranges. Sipping a frozen strawberry margarita. Watching the early morning sunbeams hit City of California. That lucky son of a bitch. He doesn’t even know how good he has it.
“You better keep it together now,” she says, unsure whether she’s talking to her traitorous shoe or her gloomy and questionable state of mind.
***
At first she thinks she’s just imagining them: careful but determined footsteps behind her, soft on the dead leaves that cover the dirt road leading to City of Finland. Then a bothersome thought creeps up on her. I’m not alone.
She stops in her tracks. The leaves rustle for a few seconds longer. Then all falls silent.
Without turning around she takes five steps forward and stops again.
The leaves on the dirt road rustle again. Then the only sound is the steady humming of a nearby utility pole. After all these years, the Chipped still provide power for those living in the suburbs. No matter how many animal carcasses the black market salesmen drag into the city or how many Unchipped spit in the guards’ faces. Despite the attacks at the Server-Center. The threats made against the head of the Chip-Center. Despite all these things, the city has never taken action against the rebels, not outside the stone wall.
Some say it shows character on the part of the Chipped. Kindness. And some say it’s just a matter of time until the Chipped come for them. That the only reason the Unchipped still enjoy their freedom is because the head of the city is occupied with more pressing things, such as creating super computers and un-rubbery vegan bacon. For now—the underdogs wait. They know they’ll be dealt with sooner or later.
Kaarina takes off running, leaping over puddles and the occasional tree branch tossed across the road by yesterday’s wind. Then she stops.
Rustle. Rustle. Rustle. Her stalker stops and waits. A deep sigh escapes her chapped lips before she turns around.
“Ässä, what are you doing here? I told you, you can’t come, not this time.” Kaarina stares at the small Jack Russell Terrier that used to belong to her mother. The dog sits in the middle of the road, his head cocked to one side. “I’m telling you, it’s not safe.”
His head tilts to the other side, tail wagging slowly left, then right, like it’s asking a careful question. Asking Kaarina to confirm her decision. A faint whine reaches her ears.
“They’ll eat you, buddy. I’m not kidding.”
Two sharp barks break the silence between them. Then Ässä turns around and takes off to the woods. Devastated each time one of the animals around her dies, Kaarina knows by now that she shouldn’t give them names. She knows, yet around the small barn—the center of her shrunken universe—only a few of the animals haven’t been named. The cats that come and go are the only ones who remain nameless, but it’s just because Kaarina thinks their anonymity suits their independence. But Kaarina wasn’t the one who gave the Jack Russell his name. It had been her mother.
She watches Ässä run back into the woods, disappearing into the thick tree line. The hum around her lulls her into a false sense of calm, where nothing bad can happen to those she lives with. Ever. Though the trick Ässä just pulled—the fact that he followed her this far into the open—suggests this is nothing but wishful thinking. She’d prefer it if Ässä was too uncomfortable to come this near the city, with or without her.
A neon-blue light seems to ooze from the city in the distance, both cold and tempting. A two-meter-high stone wall surrounds the city, with two towers marking the main gateway. The wall gives the city the appearance of a bombed-out medieval castle.
Kaarina already knows the guards won’t slow her passage. There’ll be no ticket or code needed for entry, either. She’s not known to be a troublemaker. Why would she be? She’d give away everything to live inside those walls again.
CHAPTER 2 — THE CITY
The adrenaline spike hits her just before she reaches the city center. Kaarina stops by a lonely and leafless maple tree, careful not to step on the neon-blue tiles that snake around the hologram platforms and three-story buildings of the downtown area. The solar tiles on the buildings reflect a gentle blue glow, gathering sunlight and
