The City of Lind
~*~
As the dawn broke in the densely populated city of Lind, (LIhnd) on the planet now known as Erthe, (Ai-ruh-dee) and as the faint sun, on its last millennia, rose into the sky, the dark city slowly woke up. Lind was a beautiful city, with shining, high skyscrapers with twisted spires and wind turbines painted in all sorts of glorious colors from the darkest midnight blue to the palest sherbet; an entire spectrum of colors that blended in and stood out at the same time in the sky. There were all sorts of things you could see in the city of Lind. Ancient clock towers spiraled up high into the sky, from the sonorous booms to the seemingly melodic chimes of the hour; leaving you breathless as you looked up into the skies at the facades of the towers and the buildings that seemed to float, even though you knew they were held up by the buildings below. The historical buildings where the historians lived and worked, the simple carvings in the blocks of brownstone and granite seemed incongruous, squatting next to the beautiful streamlined metal shapes of the pointed spires of the business buildings, which seemed to intimidate you with their complexity and mechanics; in the glass walls and windows, you could see all the elevators and the passengers zooming up and stopping at their respective floors and destinations in which they worked and lived. There were the science labs and the programmers’ labs which were a block across from the brownstone and granite buildings of the historians. The labs were shorter than that of the business buildings, yet they were taller than the brownstone buildings, which were so very tall. The labs were perfectly shaped squares and rectangles; with only a few spaces in between with patches of engineered trees that gave off light, heat, and oxygen. It also provided shade for the scientists and the programmers, who were the backbone of the entire city. They designed and engineered all of the buildings, finding the best possible ways to cure diseases, build higher buildings, safer roads, and so on and so forth. The scientists’ labs were simple, flat-topped, sixteen-story buildings full of the smartest people in the city. The programmers’ labs were higher, the highest one being twenty stories high, and were filled with the best programmers and engineers in the city. As the sun rose higher, the first cars of the morning were zooming along the suspended highways and through the city, spiraling in and out and up and down from the bridges into the places they were going, as the sonic trains flew by on the tracks, and as the blimps and flying things floated to their destinations and dropped off the few passengers of the morning to the central station, which was named after the man who was the founder of the company that controlled almost all things in the city. His name was Linder Cass, but that’s not our story. Our story here, is about a girl named Ehmery Cass.
In a specific part of the city, a girl and her family were sitting in the living room, each absorbed in his and her own world. The clock tower in their quadrant of the city, which was quite aptly named Tinkerbell, since it was painted a bright neon green and every half hour tinkled and glowed a soft, pastel yellow. The light from the outside streamed into the room as the game and the music faded into darkness. Ehm took off her headset and stretched in her blue egg-shaped chair. She stifled a yawn. Her games always were the first to end. She watched as her twin brother, Dess slowly come out of his game, Ender. He was frozen for exactly 4.7 seconds as the AfterShock of his game wore off. As her mother came out of the book they were reading, Dess slid off his headset, a sleek metal pair of bright blue headphones with a visor so dark that you almost couldn’t see through it. He stretched and yawned. Ehm asked, “How was Ender?”
“It was amazing,” Dess gushed. “Dude, how can anyone create something even better than this? I fought a dragon that shot bolts of light that could kill you, and its name was Rainbow Dash. How was your game Ehmmy?”
“It was okay,” she replied quietly. “I played Gravity Ghost again.”
“Again?” Dess asked, “That’s been the tenth time you’ve played it!”
“I know, Dessy.” Ehm grumpily returned, “I like that game.”
Dess sighed, “Find something else to play, Ehmmy, that game is so boring. Besides, don’t you like Ender too?” He pouted, “Come on, Ehmmy pleaaaaase?”
Ehm sighed, “Fine, I’ll play with you tomorrow. The morning is almost over anyway.”
Dess grinned. “Yessss!” and pumped his fist in the air.
“What are you two talking about?” asked their mother, Asha Cass.
The two replied simultaneously, “Ender.” What else was there to talk about?
“Alright,” smiled their mother. “Now it is time for school. Do you all have your passes and your bags?”
“Yes,” groaned Dess who abhorred school, while Ehm grinned, since she loved every single minute of it.
“Then hurry, the Sonic Express Train is leaving our quadrant of the city at nine. You’d better go,” their mother said.
~*~
The Express Train was located just outside of the Database Core, near their home. The Core was a quiet place where all of the historical records and all the old books and artifacts were stored. It was a beautiful building, with tall windows that let the light in, a huge dark blue glass dome on the ceiling with all the constellations of the northern hemisphere projected on it, with just enough light let through to see all the shining titles of the books on the shelves in the top room. It was an amazing place, with nooks and crannies to read and hide in, all the places you could get lost in the Core without a CorePosition Device, (CPD), soft, comfortable chairs that seemed to morph into your spine, and to top it all, an absolutely ginormous map of the city of Lind that was interactive and could give you directions to anywhere in the city, thanks to the hardworking programmers and scientists that were the backbone of the city of Lind. “I so want to work there,” Ehm thought.
~*~
The train’s whistle knocked Ehm out of her reverie, as everyone surged forward to get on the train. She hurried after them, almost knocking Dess over. As Ehm stepped onto the train and found a place to sit on the crowded benches near her brother, an almost human voice came over the speakers. “Next stop, the Lind Tree.” She looked out the glass windows at the quickly receding station, where her mother was standing and watching for the next train to take her to the science labs. The train whooshed to a stop in front of a beautiful station painted all green with leaves and animals. “The Lind Tree Station,” the automatic voice said. “Please depart through the doors on your left.”
Most of the passengers stepped off the train onto the platform. Ehm watched the people leave, each absorbed in their handheld device, until it was just her, Dess, and the boys and girls that went to her school. The school was named The Heathmoor School, and it was located in the northernmost part of their quadrant. It was closer to the labs of the programmers and scientists, just a few blocks away from where her mother worked. The train started up again. The automated voice said, “Next stop. The Heathmoor Station.”
~*~
The station was near her school, about one block away. After the station, you had to walk about five minutes down to the lift. The lift took you up to a platform where your retina was scanned and then you were let into the school. You walked into the front doors, and the walls were painted a dark cerulean, the school color. The ceiling was a dark blue; almost midnight black, and covered in constellations from the north and southern hemispheres that seemed to twinkle and glow. The ceiling showed the glory of the heavens. The floor was tiled with a lighter, cheerful, blue pattern that resembled intricate cogs and gears, representing the scientists and the programmers. Walking out of the front hallway, the hall separated into a “T” shape, still painted with the school color. You could see all the offices and the high-speed elevators that were only reserved for the teachers, the staff, and the injured. The stairs were at each end of the hallway. She walked up the stairs to the eighth floor where her classes were. Ehm and her brother were each in the eighth year, and Dess was in a different class from Ehm, though they were across the hall and had the same teachers. The first class Ehm had was Higher Mathematics with Dess. She walked to the classroom over. As she walked into the door, she heard bolts firing and screeches of terror from her classmates. What is going on? She wondered, walking closer to the scene. She saw holes in the supposedly bulletproof windows and the glass on the ground. What the f*ck? The windows aren’t supposed to do that, she thought. Why would the windo– More gunshots sounded, this time hitting another window in the room.
“Psst! Over here!” Dess called. She looked around for him, just spotting him in his school uniform crouching behind a bookshelf near the wall. She hid with Dess just in time as a man with long hair and was wearing dark clothes climbed into the window. Ehm watched from behind the shelf. Who was this? What did he want?
~*~
The man called after him, “All clear! Come on in!”
More people came in and Ehm caught snatches of conversation. “Revolution,” “Change is coming,” “What next?”
What change, she wondered, what revolution? What is going on?
The apparent leader of the group barked, “Come on you all, what’s taking so long? Hurry up!”
Ehm whispered, “Dess, what is going on?”
Dess shushed her with a sharp ssssh! and a finger on his lips. “Be quiet, Ehmmy, those people are mercenaries. They work for the government and they’re looking for someone in this building that escaped the prison in another city. Lope, I think. The man that escaped is a high-risk inmate who is trying to bring the entire government of the imperial city down. Now quiet, there are more people coming!”
Why would an inmate from Lope be here? Ehm wondered. Was he looking for something? Someone? If he was, than why and what was he looking for? Why was he here?
“Who are the mercenaries?” She asked. “Why are they here?”
Dess answered, “I told you already, they work for the government! They are looking for a man who escaped the prison in Lope. Shut up!”
More people streamed in from the broken window. The room slowly filled up and then receded, as the man with the long hair sorted them into groups and sent them to their respective places. When the footsteps faded away to nothingness, Dess finally decided all was clear. He motioned for Ehm to move quickly. As he hurried out the classroom door, Ehm noticed a dirty white square on the floor. She called Dess over. “What’s this?”
Dess picked it up. He opened it. Inside was an address for the science labs. It read in a messy scrawl: surround labs with mercenaries. street address: 1094 faulkman’s square. in 2400 hours find the man and bring him back to lope. be on your guard. may you prosper and grow. -a.
~*~
“That’s the motto of Lope,” Dess said excitedly. “It must be a government letter from the mayor of the city!”
Ehm slowly said, “We should take that letter to the Core Database and see what’s going on there.”
Just then, their CleaScreens buzzed simultaneously. It was from their mother. It read in all caps: WHERE ARE YOU GUYS AND ARE YOU ALRIGHT?
Ehm opened the message. She replied, “We are safe and sound on the eighth floor of the school. West wing, room 122. Dess is with me. All the people seemed to have fled the school after they heard gunshots. Are you alright?”
A minute later, the screen lit up. “I am alright, and thank odd, I managed to make it out of the labs before it caught on fire.”
~*~
A sigh of relief came from Dess as he read the message on the Clea. “Let’s go,” he said. “Back home.”
They quickly hurried to the stairs and pounded down the eight flights of stairs. They paused, as the mechanical voice inputted into the door said, “Have a great day!” as they left. Down they ran to the lift that carried them up and down to school each day, past the labs, and over to the Express Train station, and hopped on. They were the only ones on the train. The mechanical voice beeped, “Welcome to the Express Train. Next stop, the Lind Tree.”
~*~
Dess groaned, “Won’t this thing go any faster?”
As the tree blurred by and the landscape changed into buildings and the Core came into view, the train slowly came to a halt. The voice came on again. “You are now at the Database Core of Lind. Please watch your step as you leave, and have a nice day!”
Dess and Ehm leaped off the Express, and ran all the way to their house. They pounded on the door, which opened quickly inward. Their mother was standing there. “Hurry! We have a visitor.”
~*~
A man dressed in black was standing in the living room, just in front of Ehm’s chair.
Dess stepped into the room from the kitchen. “Hello father.” Dess said coldly.
Her jaw dropped. “What the…”
END.