RoboNomics

Chapter 87 - 2016

I wonder, as they tug me along, what he could mean. It's not as if seeing Matt again after all these years was enough of a surprise for me, I guess.

They lead me down some stairs and into a utility room. There's a passage at the back, and we walk along a narrow gangplank. All around us is the underbelly of the city. There's sleek duct work above my head. It's low hum is barely audible.

At the end of the gangplank is a heavy black door. Chris opens it and I'm shoved through and into a wide room with a domed ceiling.

Like everything in New Rome, the room is clean and shines with newness. But the large floor is covered in a riot of color. Bed sheets, tarps, and bolts of fabric are draped in peaks. Almost as if...

"There are people living here?"

My question echoes into the vastness of the room. The sound of it brings some of them out of their makeshift shanties.

It's like going home - going back to Earth. The people who step out of the tents are not as dirty as they once were, but they are still wearing rags. They are not as emaciated as they once were but they are still too thin; their skin is too dry and too gray.

"They came here with me," says Chris, anticipating my question.

He starts walking among the tented settlement. I follow, along with the rest of our group. I notice that I'm being stared at. A few people in the crowd wear Anti-Robotist uniforms.

"But how..." I stammer.

"Your friend Matt is very talented, Teach."

"He got past the --"

"He got past everything," interrupts Chris. "He's been very enthusiastic about the project."

"Which is what, exactly?"

"Bot-free living, of course."

Before I can ask anything else, Chris stops in front of one of the structures. It's covered in pink and white swathes of fabric that look like they could be bed sheets.

"Here we are," he says and then calls loudly. "Hello in there!"

A large flap of fabric is thrown back and out march a small group of people.

I gasp. My hand inadvertently flies to my mouth.

"Henri?"

He's the first person I see emerging from the structure. He's followed by his family.

A few paces behind them is Elizabeth. She's still wearing the all-black getup of an Anti-Robotist. She looks up at me. Her face doesn't register any emotion.

"Miriam's here as well," Chris says in my ear as I stare at my old friends. "She's with her parents. I made sure all of them were with me for the trip here."

For a long moment, we say nothing to each other. Then slowly, Henri nods.

"Andrea," he says. But he's frowning at me.

"Oh, Henri! Elizabeth! I --"

"Save it, Andrea," says Elizabeth. "We don't need to hear it. We know what you did, where you've been living and how, and what you've become."

"I --" I start, but she interrupts me again.

"We know that you left us down there. That you abandoned everything and everyone you cared about. The whole world, in fact. That you sold out."

"I had to! I had to leave, for Austin's sake. He was sick, Elizabeth. He was about to die."

She holds up her hand. She doesn't wait to hear anymore. She looks me over, she eyes lingering on my expensive clothes. Then she returns to their fabric hovel.

"I only wanted to say," I look at Henri. "That I can hardly believe you're here. I never thought I'd see you again."

"I know, Andrea," Henri says sadly.

#

"Why did you bring them here?" I ask Chris as we walk back through the tent settlement.

"For the revolution," he replies. "What else?"

What revolution? I think. I search his eyes for some clue.

"Chris, what is it? What are you going to do?" I'm afraid of his answer, but I have to know.

"What we should have done from the start," he replies. "All that bargaining. I shouldn't have made a deal with my father. I should have known that working within their system would never work. And now he's ruined everything I worked to build -- my entire life. Now he has his paradise and he'll do anything to make sure it stays this way."

I nod, not wanting to hear him rant anymore. This has nothing to do with me. It has nothing to do with my friends, or any of the other people he brought here with him from Earth. This is all about his father for him.

We approach the thick black door that we entered through. 

"Well, I'm sorry I couldn't have helped more."

"What? You think that's it?" He asks. A set of hands grasp each of my arms tightly. "Oh no," he continues. "We're not done."

(Continued in Chapter 88...)