“Yes, it’s basic knowledge that we have to learn in elementary school. Every citizen of Oceania has to know how their city works. It’s essential that we understand how life under the sea is sustained.” Dylan jumped back from the railing and started heading towards the skyscrapers across from us. “Come on; let me give you a tour of Central.”
I followed, still marveled by the SPLRS and how they worked. The pebbled courtyard turned into a solid surfacing glistening like obsidian rock with swirls of gray embedded in the design. Dylan continued to lead me through narrow, short side streets that connected between each concentric circle. The other people around us walked hurriedly, eager to get to where they needed to go. Here I saw no space suits, but regular business suits—a normalcy in downtown Chicago.
“To your left is the tallest building in our city. It’s the business center and is comprised of 121 stories. Every single business in Oceania has headquarters in that one building, including the Bank of Oceania. The first few levels are the respective shops that correspond with the business, even though they might have other shops throughout the city.”
I turned to my left to look at the building. Architecturally, it had to be the oddest in the entire city. The outside was black, but the building itself appeared to twist as it rose into the sky, making the center the narrowest part. Windows covered more space than solid wall, or so it appeared.
“And this one on the right just across from it is the media building—the second tallest one in Oceania. Just like the business center, it’s the headquarters for all of the media in the city. Every type of media is located here: news, music, movies, video games, books, and magazines. The headquarters of OVRR are in there too.”
“OVRR?” I glanced from the ornate white building to Dylan. “What’s that?”
“It’s in the Entertainment District. I’ll show you later.” Dylan moved on to another building adjacent to the media one. “And this one is the—”
“What about that one?” I wondered, pointing to one on my left several circles behind the business one. Shorter than the others, it still appeared to be at least seventy stories high. It stood out to me, not just because of the height, but also the fact that an entire section consisting of around ten floors—about one-third of the way up to the top—was a windowless band.
“Oh, that’s the government building. It houses City Hall, the courthouse, the jail, police and firefighter headquarters, security, and such.”
“Is that why there’s a windowless portion?”
“Yeah, it’s the security floors. They don’t want any external observation and I’ve heard that they have no windows because every wall is covered in monitors. I don’t really know. There isn’t a lot of information available to the public on it.”
My eyes lingered down the rows at it, but I continued to allow Dylan to take me through to the rest of Central. Winding around through circle after circle, I had no idea how Dylan didn’t get lost. I felt like I was stuck in an everlasting maze with no way to get out. I started to lose track of which building was which and whether I’d seen it before or not.
Eventually, Dylan merely stood in front of the last four buildings and described them to me. “The brownish beige one is the archive building, which includes both a digital and physical replication of everything salvaged from the ocean or land. It also includes a museum. The white building to the right of that one is the cultural center, where people who specialize in extinct languages and cultures work to try to keep them alive. So they work closely with the archive building next door. The gray one to the left of that is the technology building, where you can buy any sort of tech you can imagine. Only part of the tech is built there though. Most of the research and development goes on in the Robotics and Engineering District. And the very last one on the corner that’s nearly twice the width of most of the other buildings here is the shopping center. Anything and everything that you might need to buy in Oceania is there; specialty retail shops and the like…everything.”
Blinking my eyes to stave off the headache pounding in my head, I pleaded, “Okay, Dylan, this tour was amazing, but I am getting a little bit overwhelmed.”
“Oh,” Dylan’s excited face fell and he turned to me with concern. “Are you feeling alright?”
“Yes, I’ll be fine. It’s just a lot to take in at once. I—”
“Oh, conch shell,” said Dylan, pulling me close to the side of the building. “We need to go, now.”
Chapter 7
“Wait, what’s going on?” I inquired as Dylan dragged me into the archive building.
“Just be quiet a second.”
I barely had enough time to take in the marble floors and ornate columns lining the front entryway before I was rushed into the stairwell and up five flights of stairs. Bursting out through the door at the top, I found myself in a short hall with a circulation desk behind two double-plated glass doors. Dylan flung open the doors and we entered the room. Inside, the circulation desk stood in front of us with all white counters and walls. Tiny blue lights illuminated the overhang of the counter, giving the room a faint bluish glow. Two expansive archways to both the left and right opened into cavernous rooms.
“Okay, we should be fine here.” Dylan bent over, breathless for a couple seconds.
“What happened? Why did we run?”
Dylan breathed out harshly once and stood to his full height. “It was my mom. She can always spot me in a lie. If I’d tried to lie to her about how I knew you, we’d be found out in a second.
