Shadows (3 page)

Chapter 02: Cleaning

There was a
commotion over by the sheriff
’
s office.

A woman cried
out, screaming,
“
No, please. He
didn
’
t mean any harm. Please.
”

A couple of the deputies
held her away from the office door, pulling her back.

“
Mercy,
”
she cried, her voice echoing in the
vast chamber surrounding the cafeteria. Although there were now
almost a hundred people gathered there, silence fell over the
crowd.
“
Please, he
’
s my only
son.
”

Mayor Johns was there, as
was Sheriff Cann. Hammond was the head of IT. Both the mayor and
the sheriff looked approachable, Hammond looked perpetually
angry.

Sheriff Cann had short
cropped silver hair, betraying his age, while Mayor Johns could
have been his wife. She wasn't, but they had worked together for so
long they looked like a couple and would even complete each other's
sentences from time to time.

Hammond stroked his long,
straggly beard as he spoke with Johns and Cann. Hammond always
struck Susan as peculiar. His long, grey hair looked in need of a
cut, while his beard was matted and coarse. His eyebrows were dark
and bushy, whereas the rest of his hair had softened and gracefully
turned gray with age, his eyebrows remained as defiantly black as
his eyes.

The deputies
were trying to calm the woman pleading with the mayor, they
succeeded in softening her cries. Susan could see her whimpering,
burying her head in the shoulder of one of the deputies. Sheriff
Cann limped over to the woman, putting his hand on her shoulder and
whispering something to her. Susan couldn
’
t begin to
think what he could say that would comfort her: Hammond and Johns
were the judges, Cann was the executioner. What could possibly
soothe her soul? From what Susan could see, the woman seemed
resigned to her son
’
s fate.

“
Who is she?
Where is she from?
”
Susan asked Charlie.

Under his
breath, Charlie replied saying,
“
She
’
s from the Mids. Her
son was in IT. They say he was caught tampering with the lottery.
Funny thing is, though, he
’
s not married, so
why would he want a child? Who would he give his lottery ticket
too? Barney knew him. He said he was a nice guy.
”

Susan caught
sight of Barney across the crowded room. The three of them had been
friends in school, but ever since they
’
d begun shadowing,
they
’
d grown distant, far beyond the physical levels that
separated them. Susan had dated Barney before he moved into IT.
They'd never really broken up, they just drifted apart from each
other. Barney always had a flare for electronics.

Charlie
waved, but didn
’
t call out. Somehow,
Barney saw them through the crowd. He made his way over to where
they were sitting on the edge of the table.

With his hair
in a mop, swept stylishly over one eye, Barney
didn
’
t look like a candidate to shadow the head of IT, but
his father, James, had connections. James and Hammond played poker
together. Although gambling was illegal, the odd wager between old
friends was seen as passing chits back and forth. Recycling was the
term Susan had heard. Anyone else that joined them for a few hands
tended to come away poorer for the experience, much to the delight
of the two old timers.

Barney
brushed his hair back with one hand, flicking his head
characteristically to one side. He should just cut his hair, Susan
thought, but sometimes men could be strange about things like
fashion, especially boys that wanted to be men. For some reason, he
thought his hair defined him, perhaps it was that he thought it
made him look cool. Susan thought it made him look effeminate, but
she
’
d never say that to him, even when they were dating.
Outwardly, he blustered through the classic macho image within the
silo.

“
Come up for
the cleaning?
”
Charlie asked.

“
Wasn
’
t planning
to,
”
Barney replied, smiling at Susan.
“
Hammond
called me up. He needed me to bring Xavier
’
s reading
glasses.
”

Barney's eyes lingered on
Susan, only for a fraction of a second, but long enough to suggest
he still felt something for her, which made her feel
awkward.

“
His
glasses?
”
Charlie replied, grabbing Barney's
attention.

Susan was glad for the
distraction. She sat her hand on Charlie's thigh, subconsciously
sending a non-verbal message back to Barney. She was happy with
Charlie. Funny thing was, in that moment she became aware of how
her fleeting decisions, choices made on a whim, helped shape her
future. How could anyone make decisions of a future that was
sight-unseen? How could you decide a future with someone that would
never reveal itself until it was too late? Her mother had talked to
her about this, trying to steer her away from Charlie. Her mother
would have been quite happy with Barney as a son-in-law, and Susan
wondered if that prejudiced her feelings toward him, giving her a
subtle means of rebelling against her Mom. All that emotion was
wrapped up in the soft, tender touch of her fingers on Charlie's
coveralls. Charlie didn't notice. Neither did Barney apparently, as
he continued speaking without skipping a beat.

“
Yeah, I
guess they
’
re going to send him out to clean with his
glasses on.
”

“
But
why?
”
Charlie asked.
“
That
doesn
’
t make sense. What would he need to read out
there?
”

“
I
dunno,
”
Barney replied.
“
Perhaps
he
’
s gonna need them to clean the camera
lens?
”

“
It
’
s a waste of good glass,
”
Charlie
said.
“
The entire process is stupid. We throw our best
tech out there just to clean a lens. There has to be a better way,
some other way of maintaining the camera.
”

“
I hear you,
buddy,
”
Barney replied.
“
I did a stint on
suit building a couple of months back. There's some serious work in
putting those things together. It's a shame to see it all gone in
barely five minutes.
”

“
Barney,
”
Hammond called out, waving with his
hand to his charge.

“
Gotta
go.
”

Susan looked
at Charlie, saying,
“
Can you imagine
having Hammond as your caster? I don
’
t know if
you
’
d ever step out of the shadows.
”

Charlie
nodded in agreement, saying,
“
Yeah, tough
gig.
”

They watched as Barney
handed the glasses to Hammond who presented them to Sheriff Cann as
though he were giving him a key or some other item of value, like a
watch or a necklace. The sheriff hobbled to one side on his bad
leg, returning to his office. Mayor Johns stepped up onto a small
dais and walked up to a microphone. The crowd had swelled to
several hundred people. There were no kids. The adults present all
looked stone-faced, as though it were one of their kin being sent
to clean. In some ways it was, given the close-knit community
within the silo.

Susan
hadn
’
t really thought about it before, but there had to be
several thousand people in the silo. This small gathering
represented just a fraction of their overall population, but all
types were present. White coveralls marked the IT workers, green
spoke of farmers, dark blue was the badge of pride worn by the
mechanics from Down Deep. For them, the ascent up the staircase
would have taken several days. It could be done in less time, but
not without painful cramps and aching legs. Yellow coveralls marked
the folk from Supply, while the doctors and nurses wore white with
a red cross over the breast. It seemed everyone had come to witness
the cleaning.

Susan was
wearing the light blue of a porter, but she only just noticed
Charlie wasn
’
t in the green of
the dirt farms. He was wearing dark blue, the color of the deep.
That alone told her something profound about how he felt about dirt
farming. Charlie might not admit it, but he had to be ashamed of
the farms. There was no other reason she could think of for him
wearing the colors of a mechanic.

“
Xavier
Hollander,
”
Mayor Johns began, standing on the
dais in front of her office next to the sheriff's station. Her face
was set as hard as those in the crowd.
“
You have broken
our hearts. We trusted you. We trusted you would administer the
lottery with fairness, but by rigging the selection in your favor,
you have betrayed us all.
”

Beside the
dais, a young woman stood next to Xavier
’
s mother. She
held her hands beneath her belly. There was no visible bump, but
there must have been one forming. She clearly felt self-conscious
and out of place.

“
We must
fight for life,
”
Johns bellowed. Her voice would have
carried without the microphone.
“
For us to live,
there must be balance. If we lose that balance, we lose our lives.
Our silo is fragile. The walls are cracked, the stairs shake, the
deep floods. Our food is precious, our water is precious. For life
to continue, there must be equilibrium. To bring a life into this
world is to see one depart.
”

Susan
swallowed the lump in her throat. Whoever the girl was, Xavier
loved her. For some reason, her implant had failed and
she
’
d fallen pregnant. They were unwed, which made the
stigma worse in the closeted community of the silo. Xavier must
have told her he could fix this, that he could rig the lottery.
What had seemed like a way out had turned into a disaster. The
girl
’
s head hung low. She couldn
’
t have been
much older than Susan, and Susan understood in other circumstances
it could have been her.

Xavier must have taken the
responsibility for both the pregnancy and the lottery, deciding to
take the walk so she and the unborn child could live. But what life
would they have? A single mother cast out from society would have a
tough time raising a child alone in the silo. Susan hoped the girl
had strong, well-connected parents. Perhaps that's what the sheriff
had said to Xavier's mother, perhaps the hope of new life had
provided some consolation for her loss.

“
Life for
life,
”
Mayor Johns cried.
“
It is the way of the
Order. The Order is all that keeps us alive from one generation to
the next.
”

Sheriff Cann emerged with
his prisoner already his suit. A deputy followed the condemned man,
carrying the helmet.

Xavier had
his hands bound in front of him in handcuffs. The numbers one, two,
three and four were printed on the front of his suit, but they were
upside down. Charlie must have seen the quizzical look on Susan's
face at this unusual detail, as he whispered to her, saying,
“
I guess this is your first cleaning ... The pouches are
numbered to make the cleaning easier when you look down at your
chest. All Xavier needs to do is to follow the
numbers.
”

For his part, Xavier was
looking around as he was marched to the airlock. His silver suit
and silver oxygen tank were jarring to behold, high-tech and out of
place within the plain confines of the silo. One of the deputies
carried his helmet.

“
Ordinarily,
they
’
d take him by an internal door,
”
Charlie said,
providing a commentary.
“
But they want this
to be public. They must think there were others involved, so
they
’
re sending a message.
”

Although
Xavier was been marched sternly toward the airlock, he craned his
neck, looking over his shoulder, wanted to see his loved ones for
one last time. He must have seen his girlfriend as he cried out,
saying,
“
They
’
re liars, all of
them! Don't believe them. When lies are believed, there is no
truth.
”