Flesh and Blood (15 page)

N
o-one paid us attention now. We were no longer affluent outsiders, riding in our floater. We were just two dishevelled people wandering through the Burbs.

I had never really looked at the Burbs before. Previously whenever I had passed through them in my floater I had been preoccupied, too worried about other things to pay much attention to what was happening outside.

It was the smell that hit me first. The smell of death. The smell of plague. I wondered what the Burbs smelt of at other times.

Not of cooking. Few people would be able to afford Realfood in the Burbs, and Basics don’t have to be cooked. Not of trees or grass or flowers either, though the inhabitants could pulse them up on Virtual. Maybe that’s where most Burbanites lived — in a nicer, prettier Virtual world. I wondered what world they chose? Rose-covered cottages? A houseboat on a river? Or did they pretend they were in the City? Maybe there were Virtuals of City life for Burbanites — yes, you too can live in closed-in rooms, bordered by plasticrete corridors.

Like the City corridors, the Burbs were almost deserted. It seemed the inhabitants had realised that the less contact they had with others, the less chance of infection. If we had carried anything — food, perhaps, or even water or blankets — we would probably have been a target for thieves. Or would we? Maybe the Burbs respected their own.

At any rate, we were unmolested.

Shanties, dark doorways, a child crying, an adult voice calling for help: please help me, please. Another child, tear-stained and pale, who looked out of a broken doorway and said, ‘Have you seen my daddy?’

I shook my head. The face disappeared.

Another pile of bodies, strapped together so they couldn’t wander. But of course the Burbs were too chaotic to find everyone who’d died.

We kept on walking.

W
e found a dikdik in a shed a few kloms from the Burbs proper, just as it was getting dark.

The houses were more substantial here, with small fenced plots of land. Some even had fruit trees and vegetable gardens. Lights shone through windows, but this house was dark, so we’d assumed the owners were dead or had fled, till we looked through the window.

A man on a sofa; for a moment I thought he was sleeping, then my eyes grew accustomed to the greater gloom inside the house and I realised he was dead, long dead, by the look of him, beyond the stage of walking again or violence. A woman sat beside him, her face thin and eyes dark from starvation, but still happy and animated. A terminal rested on the table beside them. I wondered what memory or Virtual world she was inhabiting, far from the horror of the present.

We walked away quietly, though there was little chance she’d hear. I had heard of people dying in Virtual, unwilling or unable to break free, well fed and well rested in their Virtual world while their starved and exhausted Realtime bodies perished.

The shed doors creaked as we opened them and there was the dikdik. It had been a safe bet we’d find one; if the house’s inhabitants had worked in the City they’d have needed a dikdik to get them there.

Neil grinned at it wearily. ‘Just what we need.’

‘If it works.’

Neil pressed the battery monitor. ‘Nearly fully charged,’ he said. ‘You should be able to keep it going till daylight recharges it. A floater would be faster, but they can track that. At least the satellites won’t spot you in the dark and by daylight you’ll be just another Wanderer.’

I looked at him suspiciously. ‘What do you mean: “you”? What about you?’

‘To begin with, they’ll be looking for two people. Might even set up a search program for two bodies together. The sooner we’re apart the better. And, the dikdik will go three times as fast with just you. As for me, I’m going to call up a floater from home and go back to the utopia.’

I didn’t ask why. It was obvious. A floater heading back to Faith Hope and Charity would divert any searchers, and besides, Neil must be longing to see how the utopia was faring, to see Elaine and Theo and the others that he loved. I wished — desperately and completely — that I could go with him.

‘They may try to take you back,’ I said at last.

‘Possibly.’ Neil almost looked as though he hoped they would. ‘The Outlands look after their own,’ he added.

It had never occurred to me that a community as peaceful as Faith Hope and Charity might have defences. But of course, I thought, they’d survived the Declines and the Wild Years. There was probably more in their arsenal than Theo’s neuro fence.

‘I’ll ask a few of the team to come along for the ride,’ added Neil lightly.

‘There’s one small problem,’ I said.

‘What?’

‘How do you drive a bloody dikdik?’

I
t wasn’t as hard as all that. Sit astride the seat and hold on. Press forward for faster, back for slower, turn the handles in the direction you want to go. Any idiot could do it, including, I hoped, me.

The most difficult part was going to be navigating. I was a City girl, used to programming floaters to the coordinates I wanted. I had, I realised, only the most rudimentary idea of where to find north and south.

‘Look,’ said Neil, ‘you’ve just got us out of a bloody concrete maze with no-one noticing. You’re brilliant, wonderful, amazing!’ He blew me a kiss. ‘This is nothing in comparison.’

‘Brilliant, wonderful, amazing? I like that. But this is different. I know the City. I know how to program Virtual. This is all just … space to me.’

‘How about this then,’ said Neil patiently. He’d found a scrap of plastic in the shed and was scratching a rough map on it with a stick. ‘Fly east — that way — till you get to the coast. You can’t miss that.’ He glanced at me a bit anxiously.

‘Waves, sea, don’t worry, I’ll recognise it.’

‘Then fly north, oh hell, I mean turn left when you reach the beach. Keep going for …’ he calculated, ‘three large rivers. I mean rivers, not creeks — ones you’d have to swim to get over. Okay so far?’

‘How do I see the rivers in the dark?’

‘Keep an eye on the surf. Waves glow white at night — there’s enough moonlight for that. The rivers will be dark.’

Great, I thought. Look for darkness in a dark night. But I nodded. There wasn’t much alternative.

‘Then at the third river turn inland. It’ll be daylight by then anyway. Follow the river as far as it goes, then … Damn!’ He tried to think of another landmark. ‘The forest, that’s it! Turn north, I mean left, again as soon as you hit the forest, keep going for about half an hour, then … then hope you recognise where you are. Can you remember that?’

‘Remembering is not a problem,’ I said. ‘Working out what it all bloody looks like on the ground will be. But I’ll manage.’

He looked at me anxiously. ‘Are you sure you’re okay? Not too tired?’

‘I’m fine.’

‘I’d suggest you rest first, but it’s not safe yet. Maybe if you see somewhere safe in an hour or two …’

In an hour or two it would be completely dark. How can you find safety in the dark? ‘I’m fine,’ I repeated. I hugged him fiercely. ‘How will you call a floater?’

He gestured towards the house. ‘Use their terminal.’

I said nothing. Yes, he could use the terminal without disturbing the owners’ Virtual program. But to Link next to a dead body and a starving, dying addict … but I didn’t offer to go with him. Neil was a big boy. Our real enemy was time.

‘Take care,’ I said. ‘Look ——’

A faint noise outside interrupted me. I peered round the door.

A floater with full searchlights beaming and after it another.

‘Looking for us,’ said Neil. ‘Don’t put your lights on. It’ll waste battery anyway. Let your eyes adapt to the darkness. At least they’re not heading east. If you see any more of them …’

‘I know. Hide. I figured that much out.’

‘Take care love. Please take care.’

‘You too.’

I pressed the starter button. The dikdik gave a soft growl and rose in a small cloud of dust. I smiled at Neil. He smiled back, and raised a hand in a half-salute. Then I headed out the doors, missing them by millimetres.

I
t had sounded impossible, back in the shed. But we’d done the impossible before and managed; and this turned out to be far easier than I expected. It didn’t take long to get used to balancing on the dikdik. Dikdiks are designed to be stable, and to be ridden long distances. I gripped with my hands and knees till they began to ache, and I finally realised I didn’t need to grip at all. I could relax, lean back into the seat. Just the barest touch of my hands on the controls would keep us flying.

The lights of the Burbs vanished behind me. Part of me wanted to keep looking behind, to make sure that no floaters followed, or landed by the house where Neil waited for help from home.

There were few lights now, though I could see the darker black of houses below me. Were the owners ill, or dead? Or playing cautious, lights off and defences up.

My eyes dark-adapted quickly. A modification for dark-adapted eyes had been City-approved a generation before, and for some reason my parents had decided to add it to my Engineering. I had never tried to see much in darkness before but found I soon grew accustomed to the different depths of black. That was a tree, and so was that, and that a shed, and that a clear way through them all.

I smelt the sea before I saw it, a different tang from trees and paddocks. It was even easier to work out where to go now.

The moon had risen now, an irregular yellow blob on
the landward side of me, enough to set the whitecaps glowing. Even the sand seemed phosphorescent.

I changed the dikdik’s course and headed up the coast keeping as close to the cliffs and sandhills as I tried to keep safe from passing searchlights. But by now I didn’t expect pursuit. The City is equipped to defend itself, not to attack — with the dangers from the Burbs and plague in the City itself I doubted that they had more than a dozen crews to spare to look for Neil and me, and hopefully, they would have headed inland, assuming I was aiming straight for my unknown destination, rather than using the coast for navigation.

It was all strangely peaceful. I could hear the wash of the waves below the mutter of the dikdik. Once there would have been houses all along this coast. But the soil along the coast is salt and sandy — not a good place for fruits trees and gardens. Most utopias nowadays preferred the more sheltered valleys inland.

An animal pounced among the sea wet rocks; I saw its red eyes, the black shape of its body. A fox, looking for fish? Or some stranger beast created in the Wild Years? Did foxes fish, I wondered. I’d have to ask Neil.

I glanced at the dikdik’s controls. I’d been flying for just over an hour. Time enough for Neil’s floater to reach him, if they’d set the controls at max. Another hour and he’d be home. Or would they detour, to confuse the City trackers? Yes, I thought. They would.

More rocks. More waves. Another cliff, then sandhills. This was getting boring. Any other time I’d have enjoyed the time to think, but there was too much I didn’t want to think about, couldn’t let myself be distracted by; Elaine, waiting for the first symptoms to show, Neil … surely he’d be careful? The City would retaliate if he harmed one
of theirs … Black Stump … why the hell had they let in a Wanderer at a time like this! The baby, guilt that I couldn’t give her a perfect world, a safe world.

No, I didn’t want to think. Just ride, and reach the Clinic, and then …

It was waiting for me among the sandhills. It rose, black against the stars, and then the lights flashed on, a too bright circle all around it, with a stronger beam pointed straight at me.

It didn’t even occur to me it might be a stranger, have nothing to do with the City or pursuit. For a moment I wondered about outrunning it — floaters are faster than dikdiks, but maybe I could hide, evade it somehow.

No. I didn’t have the experience. I’d most likely fall off, hurt or even kill the baby and myself.

Lead it astray? No point. It didn’t know where I was headed. I’d just exhaust myself for nothing.

I switched the dikdik’s light on, more to give myself confidence than to make sure we didn’t collide, and coasted down onto the sand.

The floater whispered down behind me.

It was Michael. He stepped out onto the soft dry sand — we were well above high tide mark, the waves crashing heedlessly down the beach.

I stood up, stretching my cramped muscles. ‘How did you find me?’

‘I always know where you are,’ said Michael. His face was shadowed now, away from the floater’s lights.

I shook my head. ’You did once. You’re not Forest any longer. There’s no Link between us now.’

‘No? You don’t call — how many years was it? Thinking the same thoughts, sharing,’ he paused. ‘Everything … you don’t think that still Links us?’

‘You’re sounding like an old soap opera,’ I said. ‘Deathless love that binds us still. Come off it, Michael. How did you really find me?’

‘There’s a sigchip under your big toe. Looks like a callous, even to a Meditech.’

I felt the hair rise on my neck. ’You mean you had a sigchip inserted, back in the City? While I slept, just like the blood tests?’

‘No. I had it inserted when you were Proclaimed,’ he said calmly.

‘Why? Was the City worried about what I might do?’

‘The City knew nothing about it. I arranged it. I care about you,’ he added simply. ‘It gives your heart rate and location, that’s all. If you were in trouble I wanted to know.’

He knows where the Clinic is, I thought. He knew all the time. ‘How convenient.’

‘Yes, wasn’t it?’ said Michael.

‘So now you’ll take me back? Interrogate me till I tell you any bits you haven’t worked out already?’

‘You know,’ said Michael, ‘I really don’t know.’

I stared at him, trying to make out his expression. ‘What do you mean?’

‘It seems I have several choices,’ said Michael slowly. ‘I could send a message to the City to tell them where your Clinic is.’

‘You haven’t told them yet?’

‘No. Or I could come with you. Or I could let you go.’

‘What do you mean, come with me?’

‘Leave the City. Let your Clinic restore me, give me immunity to the plague. Do you think Faith Hope and Charity would like an experienced Administrator?’

Yes, I thought. Theo is getting older. He’d get on well with Michael. And then I thought, hell, I’m taking this seriously. He can’t mean it …

I took a deep breath. ‘Michael, people are dying while you’re grandstanding. Tell me what you’re planning to do and let’s get on with it.’

‘All right. If I left the City would you stay with Neil, or live with me?’

There was no need to even consider the question. Nor did I consider lying to him. As he said, he knew me too well for that. ‘Michael, I’m sorry.’

‘That’s what I thought,’ he said lightly.

‘We’re too alike,’ I said desperately. ‘Try to understand. Sometimes you can share too much, till there’s only one and a half of you, not two at all. Am I making sense?’

He smiled. It was a kind smile, one you rarely saw from Michael. ‘More or less,’ he said.

‘What now?’

‘Dan …’ he stopped. ’No, there’s no point asking. Of course you’ll tell me all you can, when you can.’

‘Yes,’ I said gratefully.

‘Take care Dan.’

‘You’re letting me go?’

‘I’m letting you go. No tricks.’ The same strange smile. ‘With the chip in your toe I don’t need them.’

I wondered if he was going to cross the few paces between us then, hug me perhaps, or kiss me one last time. But he just turned and walked back to the floater. Its lights flashed off. It rose and disappeared across the dunes.