Chapter 14: Escape
It was an hour before sunrise. I thought it best to escape before the city came to life. I avoided the idea of running away at night. Vaslor had mentioned something about night vision on the drones, and I didn’t want to be observed by machines I couldn’t see. I sneaked by Dad’s room, I could hear his snoring through the door. I put some dirty plates in the sink to fake that I had eaten breakfast and left. On Fridays he went to work later than usual, so there was a good chance he might buy that I had left for school. Considering how the two of us rarely talked now, I doubted he would miss me.
I gently closed the outside door, not wanting to alert him. If he saw me leaving now, he might suspect I wasn’t going to school, or worse, that I was heading to the Marks. It would probably be midday before he got a call from the school asking for my whereabouts. I had planned for that call as I pocketed Dad’s phone. The street was quiet, except for a couple of cars; no foot traffic yet. A robot drone about the size of a small man marched down the street. His steps were methodical as if he walked a predetermined route. I walked casually, not wanting to attract any attention.
I felt silly running away from home. I had talked to Lacey yesterday, and although she noticed that I was off, she didn’t pry. I didn’t dare tell her what I was planning in fear she’d be forced to tell my dad, or worse, would laugh at me. It was like something you watched as a kid where a five-year-old left home, only to be found at his neighbor’s house a short time later.
This was different. I intended to follow through. My backpack was heavy with clothes, food and water. I had enough supplies to travel for about eight days. I planned on heading west towards the coast and find work at one of the small harbours. My dad had always talked about his trips with mom to the coast when they were young and ambitious. The smell of the salt air, the coolness of the sea breeze, the rise and fall of the waves. So many vivid memories. I hoped to have similar experiences while finally getting out of this city. There was a small problem, though. Like the Wildman said, you didn’t leave the city without a travel visa. And you didn’t get one without a lot of money and documentation. Since the earthquake, mostly only scientists and dignitaries got to travel. Fortunately, I had a plan.
Instead of running away from the marching drone, I began to follow it. Slowly, I kept the same distance behind, not wanting to attract its attention. Although the drones were meticulous at surveillance, they weren’t sentient beings, meaning they could be followed just as easily as a human. On closer examination, this drone was very predictable. It always marched on the left side of the street. It looked up at every third house and always stopped when someone walked by. The more I watched it, the more I realized that it wasn’t controlled by someone to observe — it was programmed. The drones were tools, no more to be feared than a garbage can. However, the ones controlling them were a different story.
The sun was on the horizon and its pink glow illuminated the sky. There were a few more people out on the street now, mostly adults going to work. It allowed me to blend in more easily, in step behind the drone. We were heading slowly westward, towards the mountains in the direction I wanted to go. Then the drone came to a stop. A literal stop — a bus station for drones and people. I never understood why they traveled with us. Maybe the Justice Department was worried about the wear and tear on their joints, and this was a savings measure. I stood in a crowd; most adults looked intense or stressed. No one seemed interested in why I was there so early for school. Minutes later, the air bus came to our stop.
I went to the back but watched the drone plug into the center of the bus. There were four stations and another drone was already plugged in. The drone watched all of the passengers without missing a beat, as if its programming couldn’t be interrupted. A mother walked by carrying a small baby. The drone observed her every step as if they were the most important people in the city.
About twenty-five minutes later we came to the edge of town. Huge walls gated the city from the forest. No one exited the city except through main entrances. What could get us from outside the city? I looked at the top of the wall, sharp and sheer. No one was crawling over that thing, and it went well below the surface as well prevented anyone from tunneling under. The red eye of camera peered down as if watching us.
The air bus stopped and shut off its engine. Everyone disembarked, including the drones. Both of them headed to depot center, a huge warehouse that shipped supplies to other cities. Food, raw materials, trade supplies that kept commerce flowing. I walked with the crowd, shadowing the drones as they walked into the warehouse. I reached into my backpack and put a cap on to obscure my face. I looked around and picked up an empty box then walked with a casualness to my stride, as if I was part of the crew that carried supplies. I learned my first mistake as soon as I walked in.
“You there. What are doing?” I turned, and a skinny guy with long black hair was looking me over. I thought about telling him that I was new and was moving crates to the back of the warehouse. But one thing I have learned that when making a lie is never to blurt out the first thing that comes into your head. If it’s wrong, you’re sunk. Always buy yourself time. Instead of talking, I just shrugged. “You can’t carry anything in here. Drones do all the work.” He pointed to one of the drones that I had followed in.
“Just bringing a present for my dad.” And I smiled again as I started to walk away.
“Wait!” I could feel his eyes boring into my back. “Not allowed without a pass. Your dad should have told you. What’s his name?” I froze, knowing that my great escape at come to end almost as soon as it had started. His phone rang.
“J—John,” I stammered but he waved me off as he spoke on the phone. I tried not to faint and quickly disappeared from his sight. I ditched my box and scanned the interior of the warehouse. The ceiling was high, well over a hundred feet, and the occasional skylight sprayed morning sun on the crates below. Pallets of boxes were stacked up. I climbed a pile to get a better overall view of the building. The view was impressive. There seemed like enough supplies to feed several cities. I looked down one aisle where drones were pushing a wheeled pallet. It took a turn too quickly and one of the boxes fell off. Its lid snapped off and its contents spilled out. The drone picked up a replica of its head and placed it back on top of the box, its sightless eyes watching me. That’s all we needed, more drones.
I spied an area of larger boxes and climbed down from my pile. Those crates would be my goal. I walked slowly down the aisle, avoiding being spied by any human or drone workers. I was surprised by the amount of trade between cities; I had no idea how much came from outside. It made sense; although we had a lot of factories in the northwest side of the city, it was impossible to manufacture everything we needed. I imagined the types of things that must come in from distant lands. The foods, the clothes, the precious gems. Things I had only seen online.
I turned right and walked straight into a drone. I fell flat on my butt as if I had hit a truck. The drone didn’t move an inch and looked as me as if a bug had crossed its path.
“Crap!” I yelled involuntarily. I was an idiot. How would I ever be able to escape the city when I couldn’t stop screwing up in this warehouse? I was my own worst enemy. Because of my incompetence, I had let this metal shell capture me. I looked up ready to yell more profanity at it when it did a curious thing. It ignored me as if I wasn’t important. Unlike the drone on the bus, its eyes didn’t glow red. They were an ocean blue. It marched on, carrying its crate as if I wasn’t part of its programing. Guess there were spying drones and working drones. Maybe they weren’t all evil, after all. I got up and decided to stop daydreaming. I doubted I could make a third mistake.
I needed to get to the end of the warehouse as soon as possible. I had overheard Dad mention that shipments went out of the city first thing in the morning, probably because of the distance they had to travel. Today they were going to carry some extra cargo.
I walked down an aisle, taking better care to listen. The boxes were labeled with letters and numbers burned into the wood. They seemed very cryptic. I stopped and looked at the number: BX-W23. Typical adults making everything more confusing that it needed to be. I shook the box, which clanged like metal. Hope there’s no glass inside. Then I heard a sound from behind. I quickly ducked behind some boxes as the sound of footsteps got louder.
“I swear, I don’t understand why we can’t open the crates. It’s like they don’t trust us.” It sounded like the man I had met at the entrance.
“Our job’s not to inspect the cargo; that’s the drones’ job. They approve everything coming in and out. Your job is to make sure the trucks make the deadlines.” The other voice sounded older, probably my dad’s age. They stopped walking nearby and I hunkered down further.
“If you ask me, some of the tech that was just shipped in, I’ve never seen anything like it. It makes the drones look like antiques.”
“You keep looking at what’s in the boxes, you either lose your job or go to jail. Leave it to the drones.” I peeked up and the two workers were barely ten feet away from me. The younger guy grabbed the older guy’s arm.
“Don’t you ever wonder where it’s all going? Why some cities are more advanced than we are?”
The older guy shook his head at the suggestion. “All I care about is a paycheck. If you want to still be working here when you’re my age, you’ll do the same.” Footsteps confirmed that they continued walking and were gone a minute later. I peeked around to make sure I was alone again. My goal was in sight. I scurried into the truck container, which looked to be full of tenting equipment, poles, ropes and tarps. I looked up high and there were several holes to the outside for ropes to lash containers together. I would have enough air. I lay down in the back under some tarps and waited. About thirty minutes later I heard the door latched and the wheels moved forward. There were a few voices outside initially but then it became quiet. I imagined the drones and machines were doing the heavy lifting.
I stood on a box and looked out the holes as beams of sunlight streaked through. The container was pulled forward and I could hear the straining of a crane as it was loaded for transport. Several other containers were loaded on next to mine and then a huge engine roared to life. I heard a loud horn screech and then the truck moved. I leaned back and imagined where I would be at day’s end. I had looked forward to this day for my entire life.
My dad had always told me it was common for teenagers to want to leave home and see the world. That we were acting out, trying to get away from our parents and strike out on our own. It was more than that for me. I didn’t hate my home or dislike my school or city. I had friends, interests; I loved going through the Marks. And I knew why I had to leave. I needed to see more. I wanted to explore new cultures. I wanted to have new experiences, to try new technologies. I hated routine. Sometimes I walked to school a different way just to see the street in a new way. I must have tried every soft drink possible, always looking for a unique taste.
I wondered what my dad was doing now. Probably already at work, reviewing another case. Another guilty verdict. Despite my anger with the justice system, I knew my dad meant to do what was right. He had undoubtedly brought many guilty people to justice. I had seen enough history videos to appreciate that our society was much safer now. People lived under much less stress knowing that violence was almost nonexistent.
So why did I feel sick to my stomach? Was Lou’s case an aberration? Was someone out to get him? He was just a vendor at the Marks — I couldn’t see why discrediting him was important. Unless he was one of many. How many times had my dad sentenced people with false video footage? How would one be able to check? Was Lord Morall unwilling to look at the truth or part of the corruption? It didn’t matter; I’d be so far away at the end of the day that I’d never have to deal with any of this again.
The sounds of the city streamed through the holes on the top of the wall. I was surprised that we hadn’t left the city yet. I assumed we would have exited at the checkpoint at the depot. Maybe we were taking another route? Then the truck slowed down. It was not the slowing down that you did when you rolled to a stop sign but to a complete stop for a longer period of time. I heard commotion outside and then felt a jolt as my container was raised up and then lowered to the ground. Had I miscalculated? Were these containers delivered to the city instead outside of it? I cursed my luck but then listened as the truck pulled away without dropping any more containers. What’s happening? My answer came seconds later as the container door opened.
“You were lucky you weren’t caught. They scan every crate for life signs before they cross the border. If I hadn’t diverted this container, you would be going straight to jail.” He shook the hair out of his face.
Where did Austin come from?
“Thanks, I think. Where am I?”
“Someplace safe. I made sure the drones didn’t detect you.”
“How? Were you following me? How did you know I was in the container?”
“I know a lot.” He extended a hand to pull me out of the container. “Because of your attempted escape, now I can tell you what’s really going on.”