Published: 25 Apr 2022

Walls Yet Worlds Apart

⚫Corporal Diffuso: Explorer Corps – Trainer/Tester
⚫Dakota: Cadet Sergeant Explorer Corps Academy – Leader of Rescue Team One
⚫Mario: Cadet Corporal Explorer Corps Academy – Member of Rescue Team One
⚫Fairfax: – Senior Private Explorer Corps Member Mountain ISTAZ Team 5
⚫Ajax: – Senior Private Explorer Corps Member Mountain ISTAZ Team 5
⚫Diane: – Specialist Explorer Corps Forest Mountain Team 19
⚫Sean: – Specialist Explorer Corps Forest Mountain Team 19

Dakota looked up as the others got ready. “Take the food, clothing, and two of the preset packs. We’ll have to keep the rest here in the E-dome. Also remember, with the star storm, we can mark locations on our note-puters, but the satellites above are cocooned. We will not be able to do a navigation track.”

He pulled a laser cutter from all the gear Diffuso had shoved into the overloaded pack. “We are lucky the ropes are red. Cut one into sections and tie them around trees as you go so there is an easy to identify path back here, or for us to get to you. We’ll have to take the gear up to them in loads.”

While Diane sliced several long sections of her rope, Mario started to pull lots of food out of the big pack so he could add other items into it.

Ajax looked at the remaining gear for a few seconds. He frowned and looked around.

Fairfax noticed as he secured a few extra survival items onto his pack. “Problem?”

Ajax continued to look around, “Did your family ever use a skid when you found a bunch of good stuff in a trash pile?”

“Yeah… especially when there was snow on the ground…” Fairfax snapped his fingers in sudden understanding. “We could build a couple of skids!”

“Out of what, though?” Ajax asked as he continued to look around.

Mario frowned, “Guys we need to get moving…”

Dakota spoke up even as he got the first readings on Diffuso and used an injector to administer some recommended medicine. “Mario, chill for a sec. You need to listen to these two.”

As Mario shrugged, Dakota continued, “So Double Xs, what is a skid? And why should we spend time building one?”

“Double Xs?” Ajax asked with a frown.

“Yeah,” Mario stated with a smirk. “It’s a nickname some of the camp cadets have started to call you after we found out you were the ones stealing the extra food. It’s a combination of you both having Xs in your name and the unexplained and still unknown way you managed to sneak in and grab so much without getting caught.”

Fairfax exchanged a fist bump with Ajax as he smiled widely. “Got us a rep! I like it.”

“Double X…” Ajax nodded, “I could get used to it… Anyway, a skid is something made out of trash that is easy to pull.”

Fairfax continued, “We normally found something large, flat, and strong we could attach ropes to. We’d pile everything on and a few, normally my dad and older brother, and sometimes my mom, would pull it after we piled lots of usable stuff on top. If we came across a large pile of clothing or tools, a skid was a way to get a lot of it fast before the rats or gangs took notice… in this snow, it should be easy to pull and would keep our hands free. We have rope, but there is nothing to build one out of.”

“Kind of like a disk sled,” Sean stated with sudden understanding.

“Disk sled?” several of the others asked within moments of each other.

“Uh huh… Um, I played on one for hours at the ski domes I told you about… um, it’s a slick plastic disk that slid super-fast downhill. A conveyor belt with ropes hanging down would take you back to the top of the hill. All I had to do was sit on the disk, grab the rope, and let it pull me up. Then slide back down. It was awesome!”

“Geesh, that sounds like sooo much fun,” Fairfax sighed. “But you’re right. That’s exactly like a skid. But we don’t have anything to build one out of.”

Mario scanned the mound of gear and raised an eyebrow. “If we cut the bigger food and survival gear packs, tie some straight green strong branches to it so they won’t break as easily…”

The rest didn’t need to be said, both Fairfax and Ajax grabbed axes and disappeared into the foliage of nearby trees. A couple of minutes later large straight branches fell into the forest floor. Both reappeared with fresh seed pods in their mouths.

Dakota glanced up as the medical scanner continued to beep and chirp as it gave Diffuso a full scan. “How often do you think of food?”

“Always!” Ajax admitted. “Go days without, you would too.” He completed the statement by popping another seed pod into his mouth.

Fairfax also crunched another and held out a handful extracted from his vest for the others before he helped build the first skid.

Diane and Mario piled some of the extra gear onto the first and gave it a test pull. Both nodded. It didn’t take long to construct a second.

With two skids built and most of the gear loaded on them, Mario pulled up his note-puter. He had it send out a red beam straight north. He pointed to the tree it hit. “We’ll use a tracking beam to head north. We tie a rope around each tree the beam hits.”

“Watch your footing,” Dakota stated with clear warning. “We won’t do anyone any good if we twist an ankle or knee.”

The thick undergrowth, horrible weather, and deep snow hindered the progress, but the four continued to move north at a steady pace.

After over thirty minutes of near silence Mario looked over, “Double Xs, can I ask you something?”

Ajax nodded as Fairfax said, “Yeah, sure.”

Mario took a knee in the deep snow and put his back to a tree to cut back at the blowing snow. “I’ve been in the academy for over two years. I’ve had classes with several SLOs. They’re super hard to get to know… I don’t think I have had more than a few words with any of them, and it’s always about schoolwork. None of them really talk except with each other…” His voice faded as he took a few deep breaths.

“And?” Ajax asked.

Mario’s forehead crinkled in obvious frustration. “And… I really don’t know… um, I mean you two seem great and there is one girl…” His face took on a red blush.

“And you want to get to know her, but don’t know how?” Diane asked.

Mario nodded. “I’ve tried… I really have… I mean I’m not great at talking to girls, but… when I try with Beth, all I get is one or two word answers. I first thought she just didn’t like me, but I don’t think that’s it… Not really. All the SLOs at the academy are pretty much the same way.”

Diane stared at Mario for a few seconds. When the teen didn’t speak further, she prompted him. “What do you try to talk about?”

“All kinds of stuff. Favorite food, hobbies, holovid movies and games, best birthdays, favorite places, best friends… it’s like… I don’t even know.”

Ajax and Fairfax exchanged glances. They swapped telepathic messages for a few seconds before Fairfax finally spoke out loud. “You realize every one of those questions are kind of pointless, right?”

Total confusion was etched on Mario’s face. “Pointless?”

Diane’s jaw moved back and for a few seconds. As silence threatened to end the conversation, she spoke with uncertainty in her voice. “When I was out with Fairfax… it kind of started out that way, but… Um, by the time we got to the lake and started fishing, I realized I had to get to know… him.”

She turned to Fairfax, “Get to know you… and you had to get to know me.”

“But that’s what I’ve been trying to do!” Mario retorted.

“No.” Ajax finally responded with a little more venom than he intended. “You’re trying to make her answer questions she can’t.”

As Mario held up both hands, Fairfax glanced over and sent Ajax a hard thought, ‘Be nice. He’s at least trying to understand.’

Ajax took a deep breath, “Sorry… We kind of had the same thing happen between us and Gavin and Robin. But it’s… it just pisses me off sometimes… you haven’t even tried.”

As Mario’s frown deepened, Diane spoke up again. “Guys you’re not being fair. He’s attempted. But just like me when I was with Fairfax, he hasn’t done the most important thing.”

She turned to Mario, “You haven’t listened.”

“Listened? Listened to what?” Frustration boiled over as Mario kicked at the snow. “One or two word answers? What is there to listen to?”

Diane held up a hand to cut both Fairfax and Ajax off even as they both started to speak. “Mario, what have you learned about…” She shot the younger boys a big grin, “Our favorite Double Xs?”

Mario’s brow scrunched again, but he seemed to calm. After letting out a couple of breaths he eyed the two boys with him. “I haven’t heard much…”

“But what have you learned?” Diane pushed gently.

Mario chewed at his lip for a few moments. “OK… um… You both have lived through nasty crap. Stuff I don’t think I can properly imagine. You are both fast, smart… not book smart… I mean you might be, but it’s a different type of smart. Like something else… you think real fast… um problem solve might be the best way to put it. What makes me cringe or sounds totally gross, you talk about without… without… I don’t know. It’s like it doesn’t bother you or something.”

“Like what?” Fairfax asked with a smirk.

“Like what?” Mario shook his head in disbelief at the question. “Like climbing into a nasty trash chute!”

Ajax rolled his eyes as he grabbed for the skid again, but Fairfax held up a hand to stop him. “Hold up. I think Diane’s right. But I’m starting to see what we take as not listening to us or not really caring is not true. Many of you care, and you listen… but what you don’t do is fully hear. Maybe because, like you said, you can’t imagine it, so you don’t know how to hear what we say.”

Ajax dropped the edge of the skid and turned. This time there was less anger and more befuddlement in his voice. “How can they not know how?”

Fairfax shrugged, “I don’t get it, but we need to listen too. What did he just say about when we were talking about climbing into the trash chutes?”

“How nasty it is.”

“Yeah, but he is saying how nasty it is for us to do it,” he looked back at Mario, “right?”

“Yeah! It’s like disgusting!”

“And there’s the problem. You are not hearing us. Maybe you can’t. I don’t know.”

Diane suddenly nodded. “Getting in through a trash chute isn’t nasty for you. It’s… fun… Correct?”

Fairfax let out a long breath, “Kind of. The climbing in, the timing of getting to the inner door, grabbing the cables to get dropped down to the maintenance platform is a thrill. Not fun, not in the truest sense of the word… but it’s… exciting and a rite of passage. Not the first, but one of the biggest. Once I did it, I was not just some helpless mouth to feed… and… well… It’s never boring. It comes with real risk and always a challenge!”

Ajax nodded, “Now I get what I think you’re saying… Fairfax is right, but it’s more. Once I got too big to easily carry, but before I could climb in on my own, we had to go into the lowest levels of the towers through cracks and holes. And yeah, there are lots of holes in the towers. Many of them from trash being dropped into already crumbling walls from overhead trash haulers, others are doors that were at street level that have long ago been welded over, but sections are pried up. Building crews plate them up all the time, only to have those on street level pry them open again. They also fix holes, but more happen all the time.

“The problem is, the lower few floors are truly horrible. Steam pipes hot enough to burn the skin off, come right off fusion generators and are everywhere. Insulation gets pulled or even eaten off so many are exposed. Then there are the rats, big nasty ones, bugs, biting ones… repair bots… and the meanest of the mean. The real predators… humans, all use those lower floors. Heat in some sections pushes to deadly ranges and a steam pipe breach will cook everything in a large area.

“Damage to equipment means quick response from armed guards escorting tower maintenance or worse, robotic repair. The robots kill whatever they encounter including people, because… well I think they are programmed that if it is living and in the lower levels, it is a danger to the tower.”

“They are, Mom and Dad are certain of it.” Fairfax stated emphatically. “If you get lucky, you can find a spot in the lower few floors where the robots cleared, then repaired a section or repaired a steam leak. Those have way less rats and bugs… But…” Fairfax sighed, “There are lots of bodies in the lower five or six floors of all the towers… including one of my sisters.”

Diane moved over and put an arm around Fairfax. “So sorry!”

Ajax cringed, “Yeah, that sucks… I’ve lost a sister and two brothers, but never to a robot… But anyway, once in through a trash chute, we are above the lower five or six floors. There are safe spots, places to get water, and there are way less rats and bugs. Sonic pest repulsers seem to work better above the first five or six floors too.

“Zap cameras and patrol bots are the biggest dangers, if they activate, tower security shows up fast, so you have to avoid them. Security bots always find you eventually. At least they don’t kill… well, they don’t as long as you don’t shoot at them. If you do… not a good idea… Anyway, most living at street level think they can map or trace fresh heat and maybe DNA, so you only have a few days inside a tower before you have to get out and move on. Otherwise… well, it’s get caught or try to fight and probably get killed.”

“It all sounds horrible to me,” Mario admitted.

“And there is the problem,” Fairfax responded. “For a few days, life on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors is great as long as there are no thugs waiting. If there are, it’s a fight and that brings security bots. The only bad part is climbing through all the stench and goo in the chute. It’s kind of gross seeing what comes out: squished rats, tons of cockroaches, sometimes bodies. Knowing that is what we are sticking our heavily wrapped hands into. Understanding we’ll have to find a water valve that is not too hot to wash off. Knowing the clothing we are wearing will have to be tossed because it will never lose the nastiness. Finding new clothing is a big deal, so we always wear the worst we have when we trash chute climb.”

Ajax eyed Mario for a moment, “The problem is, inside there is no scrounging, so while it is a good place to get out of real cold or hot weather, and a place to get clean, you leave most of your stuff at street level. It always gets found, so you come out and have to start with just what you were able to carry inside.”

“Uh huh,” Fairfax nodded. “We normally went inside only when we had to because we needed a day or two since one of us was real sick. Mostly it was in and out fast when we had to find fresh water, or we had to abandon everything to a gang. I don’t know about Ajax, but lots of times we went in the same towers over and over, because we knew the trash chute schedules. We went in wearing rags and carrying water containers. We’d refill, send them down on ropes made of useless clothing and other cloth the next time the chutes opened, then scamper down. I got caught with my oldest brother a couple of times and had to wait for a third opening. Once he got out and I didn’t. That was scary. I had to wait for the next time it opened. I got lucky. They were able to stay close, or I would have been separated. Being alone at street level is about the worst thing there is… except being forced into a rotten lower apartment with two other families… Or getting caught and taken to the orphanage.”

“Pretty much the same for my family, but for me the smell of the air inside the towers always got to me. It’s bad… It’s real bad at street level too, but there is something really off with the air inside.” Ajax glanced around, “This is the best air ever.”

“Way better than tower or street level air, for sure!” Fairfax agreed. He paused and looked at Mario, “Did any of this help?”

Mario grabbed the skid he and Diane had been pulling with a frown. “I… well, you have said more to me in the last few minutes than any ten SLOs at the academy have in the last two years, but…” his voice stopped in his throat. He sighed.

Fairfax snorted, “You’re never going to get anywhere with any of us, including this Beth, if you go silent.”

“I don’t want to make you mad.”

“Not asking and staying silent will make me madder than trying to get to know me.” Ajax countered.

“Yeah,” Fairfax instantly agreed. “We got enough silent treatment at the orphanage and during the first several hours at Dal-Houston before Robin and Gavin talked to us.”

Mario let out a long breath, “How about I ask while we get to those who need us?”

“Ready when you are,” Ajax stated.

It was almost ten minutes and two more trees with pieces of rope tied around them before Mario made more than small talk Suddenly, he turned and looked at the two boys. “Guys, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but… why not take an apartment with your family? Even if it was with others, it had to be better the living on the streets, right?”

“Wrong!” Ajax fired back.

“Way wrong,” Fairfax stated in agreement.

At this point Diane spoke up. “Hate to say this, but I’ve been thinking the same thing since I first heard both of you mention you had fled assigned apartments with your families. It didn’t… still doesn’t make sense.”

Fairfax cocked his head to the side, “You seriously don’t get it, do you?”

“Obviously not,” Diane responded slowly, “but I want to.”

“Bet you don’t,” Fairfax grumbled, “but ask away.”

“I would, but I don’t know what questions to ask.”

Mario nodded in complete agreement. “Same here. Beth mentioned her family left assigned apartments twice. Many of the SLOs seemed to know what it meant when she said her family was caught a third time, but I sure don’t!”

Fairfax winced, “Cause when her family was caught a third time, all the kids were taken and put into orphanages, not the same one, different ones, so they wouldn’t try to team up and escape. At least that is what we were all told when we got stuck in the second one, and we’ve seen SLOs who it happened to. It’s also why I told my family to run when I hurt my foot and the patrol was closing on us. I knew what would happen. It was better if they only caught me than everyone.”

Ajax let out a long uneasy sigh, “Got warned about it by one of the other families we got stuck with the one time we got rounded up. They were on their second stint at SLPH…” Seeing both Diane and Mario turn and frown he clarified. “Street Level Persons’ Housing. I’ll get into what SLPH really is if you want, but what Beth was telling you was she was pulled from her mom, dad, brothers, and sister and shoved into an orphanage without any of them. What no one knows is what happens to the parents after the kids are taken.”

Diane let out a gasp, “No! You mean she may have had brothers and sister but weren’t even allowed to stay together with them?”

“From what a couple of other SLOs at our orphanage say, they were separated and transported the second they were found to be on their third stint at street level. And even worse, they get nothing they came in with. At least we got to keep a couple of minor things.”

Diane blinked, “That’s… Barbaric!”

Mario shivered more from what he was hearing than the huge icy flakes slashing at his face. “That’s not right… I… I had no idea what she was trying to tell me. I feel awful!” He let out a growl, “Something needs to be done…”

“Do what?” Fairfax snarled with anger. “Our ID numbers were taken away! I found out mine says deactivated. My name was changed too, not that it matters. I doubt you can search by name. Even if you could and I still had the name Bubba Devenard, there is probably thousands with my name. Even if my mom, dad, sisters, or brothers got housing and managed to get a job making enough to travel and search for me, there is nothing left to look for.”

“No wonder she won’t talk to me,” Mario groaned. “I must have looked like a complete idiot with what I said.”

“What did you say?” Ajax demanded to know.

“I told her she was part of the academy family now…”

Ajax raised an eyebrow, “And she got mad at you?” Surprise was evident in his voice.

“No, not really. She gave what kind of looked like a sad smile. I waited. I thought she was going to say more… But when I didn’t say anything else, she sighed and walked away… She does nod at me once and a while, and I always smile and try to be nice, but she hasn’t really talked to me again.”

“I’d bet she is waiting for you to open the door again.” Fairfax answered with a sad sigh. “It’s not something any SLO is going to talk about without someone else sounding like they really want to know… Like you two just did.”

Ajax nodded, “Just like Gavin and Robin did with us. We told them we were SLOs. They asked what an SLO was. We told them. They listened, really listened.”

“And they made it clear they don’t care what we are or were. We are friends., but they are also always willing to listen. When they talk about their families, they ask us about ours.” Fairfax smiled. “It’s nice to be able to talk about my mom and dad, brothers and sisters with someone who really wants to know what my family was like.”

“It’s almost like they are stepbrothers,” Ajax admitted. “Still trying to get a feel for Oliver, but he cares…” he put on a silly grin as he added, “and thinks I’m cute. There are worse things!”

This got a snicker out of Mario and a giggle out of Diane. A couple more minutes passed before Mario looked back again, “Can I ask more later?”

“Sure,” Fairfax answered without hesitation. “But we can only tell you what we know. I bet other CHZ’s are different when it comes to SLOs.”

“Maybe, but I know she is from Chi-Troit.”

“Doesn’t guarantee we can tell you everything. We are from the South-Central district, at least that is what the old lady says. I’ve heard some areas are lots worse than others,” Ajax warned.

Fairfax nodded, “Every time someone complains about our orphanage, we get told the same thing. We were lucky to be from the South-Central district. The worst areas according to everyone, including my mom, are the East Central and Southeast around the Erie and St Clair Reservoirs.”

“I don’t know where in Chi-Troit she came from.” Mario admitted. “To be honest, I’ve never thought about if my own district of Okla-Tul CHZ is different from any other in Okla-Tul. All I really know it is one of the smaller CHZs. My home tower is real close to the edges of the wastes. When we take trips to the park, we can look out over a section of tall walls. There are crumbling towers and a whole lot of brown nothingness beyond. I’ve often wondered about those old towers. I asked my holo-teacher once. She said it is the ruins of the first try at building such tall towers, but Dad said they were abandoned about the time he started school because of water shortages and fighting over water. I’ve always wanted to go over there and explore, but it is against the law. Mom says it’s because there are pieces of towers that fall all the time, but… Every time I see them… I want to check them out, and then there is the wall. Why wall them off like that?”

Ajax shrugged, “Mom and Dad always moved south. Both of them said if we could get out of Chi-Troit we could move out into the wastes. So, maybe there are people out there.”

“But there is nothing… brown desolate ground as far as the eye can see. When we leave from the space port, you can see even further as the ships go high. I’m telling you, there is nothing beyond the outer crumbling towers.”

“I don’t know,” Ajax admitted after several seconds of silence. “Maybe it was just Mom and Dad trying to give us something to hope for. But it sounded great to get away from all the trash, rats, gangs, and filth of Chi-Troit.”

Conversation rapidly tapered as the four pulled the skids over and through heavy snow and dense undergrowth. After nearly an hour Fairfax heard a whisper in his head. ‘Where are you?’

He glanced over at Ajax. It was clear his friend hadn’t noticed. He took a deep breath and sent a message, ‘I heard you. We’re on the way.’

Ajax glanced over.

Fairfax shook his head. ‘I heard him again, but it was weak.’

Ajax nodded, ‘He may be like Robin, we can hear him way before he can hear us. We’ll take turns trying to talk to him.’

A few hundred meters, and six more pieces of rope tied off to trees later, Ajax leaned against the tree and tried again, ‘We should be getting close. Can you hear me?’

The response was quick. ‘Yes! I hear you… but the others are looking at me like I am nuts!’

‘Not surprising. But we really don’t want this getting out…’

‘Too late… um, I can’t take back what I’ve already told them.’

‘We’ll try to figure out something. For now, can you try to throw another burning pod or two?’ Fairfax asked.

‘We are about out, but yeah, give me a second.’

Ajax spoke up, “Think I saw something!” He pointed to the north.

Diane and Mario stopped dragging their skid and looked up and to the north. A few seconds later a greenish-gold burst could just be made out through the blowing now. It was followed by two more.

“There!” Mario shouted. “Good eyes!”

His shout was answered in the distance, “Over Here! Over Here!”

“Hold tight!” Mario shouted. “We are on the way!” He took a deep breath and pulled with renewed purpose. At the same time, he spoke into his T&R, “Dakota, we hear them. I bet we are only a few hundred meters from them!”

“Great! But don’t get stupid and rush!”

Mario held up a hand to slow everyone down. It wasn’t needed since everyone heard Dakota’s warning. “Understood.”

“Get me an update when you get to them!”

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