Disorder City: Chapter 4

4

About an hour later, I found myself walking back along Central to my apartment. The time alone to think had not settled my mind. It just seemed pointless to sit in the cold when it was obvious that no solution would present itself any time soon. I concentrated on my feet as I walked, my steady puffs of breath against the cold air making me long for a cigarette.

Ree was fast asleep in my bed when I entered our shared room. Crow was not among her messy mattress in the corner, and I felt thankful for her nocturnal working schedule. I didn't feel tired. All was silent inside my head. I almost wanted to welcome back the unbearable noise so that I could be forced to sleep. I fished through my bag to retrieve a pack of smokes, and then slipped quietly through the front door. Sitting on the cool front steps, I thought about the facts that had been presented to me.

First, my parents were not a part of the resistance against the government, as I had so long believed. They were a part of it. Second, I had some piece of nonsense inside my head that got really bad reception. I took a deep drag on my cigarette, letting the smoke trickle out with a sigh. Where does someone start to fix something like this? I decided upon two things. Ree would not be able to know about this, not just yet. And, I wanted it out.

Someone shook me awake. It felt like I had only just fallen asleep. Ree's face materialized in front of mine, and she waved a backpack back and forth.

"Wake up Eva; you have 20 minutes before you have to take me to school." I groaned internally.

I spent 10 minutes making coffee. Ree seemed to think this an awful waste of my limited time, but I strongly disagreed. After a few sips of the rich, dark brew, I felt my senses coming alive. I spent the second 10 minutes showering and pulling on a sweater. My sister watched me open the door and gesture her out with a perplexed look on her face.

"What?" I asked, nudging her backpack through the doorframe to get her going.

"Takes me like, an hour to get ready, at the least." She replied. I sighed. Me and my sister truly came from separate worlds.

We walked the length of Central, which, according to Ree, was an unfathomably long distance. I explained to her that the QL didn't have a station here. She didn't ask why. We finally turned off onto a main highway that stretched along the side of Micah, and I led her up a flight of stairs onto the raised platform of the train. She stood by the ceiling-high windows gazing down at the Slums. I wondered if she had regretted moving in with me and not finding another Uptown kid to live with. I saw the train approaching from a distance and called her over, grabbing her hand. She rolled her eyes at me as the train whizzed into the station, and the doors opened. A swarm of people pushed their way out, most likely Slum residents. I held Ree at a safe distance until the coast was clear, and then got onto the train. Ree made no mention of me walking out the night before, just studied the buildings out of the window.

The QL stopped right beside the high school, just as it stopped alongside the malls and all other large 'important' buildings. The large educational building looked strange and large from above, more like a prison without fences. I remembered a few years ago when it had been finished being built, the residents of Micah less than pleased about the large dip into their tax money. There used to be 3 secondary schools. The first, a religion-based school, had been shut down after an increasing number of potentially harmless threats resulted in 3 students murdering a teacher. The other had been torn down after city council decided to add another shopping mall to boost tourism. As a result, Micah Secondary School had to accommodate three times as many students. And voila, teenage prison. I watched Ree walk into the safety of the front doors, then headed in the direction of Pixel's apartment.

The piece of technology in my brain – I refused to think of it as an implant, made me notice all the bits of machinery and computer that were involved in my daily life. Every day I walked past heat-sensitive cameras, rigged to turn on when someone's emotions ran too high. The Quick-Line was run entirely by computer. Keys had been outdated, eye-appealing digital locks adorning the doors of houses and apartment buildings alike. No telemarketers called anymore, just a computer reading out a sheet of typed in data, automatically going down a list of numbers. Anyone who walked on the sidewalks was caught on film often by the traffic cams that whizzed around protected by cement and bulletproof glass.

I felt a great weight on my shoulders, thinking of how far humanity had fallen. Everything relied on computer chips these days, even the appliances in a house were programmed to automatically serve different functions and to turn off in case any danger was sensed. Even Pixel and I, I thought as I rang his doorbell, who vow to resist the changes the government brings, rely on computers to get the information we need.

"Hey chicky." He greeted me with a smile as he answered the door. As if nothing had happened, the world was all well, and I didn't have a foreign object in my brain tissue.

"Hey." I responded, following him into the apartment.

Pixel poured cups of coffee for him and myself before he went back to sit in front of his computers. I helped myself to a box of cereal from his cupboard. I pulled up a spare computer chair beside Pixel and kept at a good distance from his gadgets, not wanting to spill milk on any of his keyboards.

"I found someone who can tell us what that do-dad in your head is all about. Don't worry; he's viva le resistance and all that." He said without taking his eyes away from the computer screen.

"Oh." I responded, thinking about it. "What's his specialty?"

"He used to work for the government, I think. Working on those computerized heart monitors and stuff like that. Basically anything to do with computers put into organics is his stuff."

I nodded even though he wasn't looking. His fingers fluttered across the keyboard with the finesse of a skilled piano player, eyes speed-reading information on the screen.

"I'm sorry about last night." I mumbled.

He laughed. "Hey, if I found out the government put some shit in my head, I would freak out too. No worries."

"So when are we meeting this guy?" I asked, finishing off my cereal.

"Anytime you want, girlie. He does independent stuff now so he's always at home. Lives in the north west."

I went to the kitchen and washed out my bowl and spoon, then returned to my seat.

"Well, I want to get this dealt with as soon as possible. I know that I've had it in my head for a long time, but now that I know, it's a bit of a kill joy. Is tomorrow okay?"

"Probably." He opened an email page and quickly typed out the request. "Ask and you shall receive."

I used one of Pixel's lesser computers to read the news postings. I found nothing out of the usual. A more extensive article on Mayor Donne's most recent promises to the public that I had read the night before. City Council was talking about removing the heated lamps around the mall to discourage the homeless from seeking refuge there. I spent a few hours browsing different international and local news sites and checking my emails. Pixel's apartment was the only place I used a computer, because I knew it was safe.  

When I finally decided to go home, I walked in as Crow was getting out of the shower. She glanced at me, then looked away. "I made more coffee," She said.

"Coffee? Shouldn't you be sleeping?" I said, instantly regretting my judgmental tone.

"I thought we could talk." A moment of silence passed between us. I filled the empty air with the actions of pouring myself coffee. Two things I never refused: coffee and cigarettes. I wasn't the healthiest of people, but it was my body and I could destroy it as much as I wanted. We sat at the dining room table sipping our coffee until Crow finally broke the silence.

"After I left Anselm… I never really felt okay talking to anyone. I mean, you were pretty much my first friend." She said, not meeting my eyes. "I grew up in a crazy hospital, and I figured that there was no chance for any kind of normal life. I figured I would never be able to be useful to the world."

"You helped me," I interjected, "it's not like I had any friends either. And renting this place out was like, the best decision I've ever made, and I couldn't have done it without you."

She smiled. "I always thought we had a sisterly bond, I never thought that you could just read my mind."

My face fell. "I can't read your mind, Crow." I said in all seriousness.

"Nevermind." She laughed it off. "We're all weirdo's here, me, you, Pixel, even Ree! At least we can't complain about having a boring life." I smiled in agreement, it was true after all.

"Pixel found someone to find out what's in my head." I stated, listening to the clink of my spoon as I stirred my coffee.

"Oh, who? Are they going to take it out?" I paused. Crow was the first person to consider the fact that I might want the implant removed.

"I don't know. I don't think so. I think he's only able to tell me what it is, what it's there for."

"Oh." She said again. "Well, that's better than nothing, I guess. Have you told Ree?"

"Not yet, I don't know how I would explain this to her. I don't think I can tell the truth about our parents until I know for sure myself." Crow nodded in response.

"Poor thing. Raised in the Uptown. It's going to be hard for her to adjust to our wild lives." She said, waving her hands around at the word 'wild'.

"Speaking of that…" I smiled. "I told her we would teach her a few self-defense moves. Because of what happened."

"That's awesome!" Crow's face lit up. "I can set up the punching bag and we can start after you bring her home from school."

Leave it to Crow to be excited about anything to do with fighting. But underneath, I suspected she was starting to feel like Ree was her little sister, too.