Abscond

(verb. ab-SKAHND)

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This was an odd batch, to be sure.

Usually they all came from the same relative area, wearing the same colors and saying the same things. But this group was a mixed bag of greys, blues, and browns, muttering so much varied slang it sounded like they all spoke different languages.

At least they all understood the red light on the wall that told them when to be silent.

"The usual?" Father asked the white-clad enforcer before him.

"Yes." The man waited patiently at the counter as my father took the allotment card and gathered the listed provisions. It was the same thing every week, he never deviated. He looked over to where I sat, organizing the new stock we'd received.

They gave us more oatmeal than usual. I guess the reports of a good crop weren't exaggerated. Or they had pulled them out of some mysterious storage house, judging by the dust on the tops.

He gave me a professional smile.

"Well, Lia?"

"Well, Tai." I replied, turning my focus to him. It wouldn't do to ignore an enforcer, regular customer or no. "Work well?"

"All's safe." He shifted and the tiniest bit of desire touched his eyes. "Have you thought about going through the matching ceremony yet?"

"No, sir." I said, adding the sir to distance myself from him. The matching ceremony itself wasn't compulsory, but if you went through with it, you had no choice in who you wound up with. Unless an enforcer requested a connection.

They were the only ones who could choose, and from any caste, no less. "And you, sir?"

"Waiting for the right moment."

I bet.

Father saved me from any more parroting by setting the bag on the counter.

"Here you go, sir. All should be in order."

The enforcer grabbed the bag. "Safety to you."

"Safety to you." Father replied and we watched the man leave the shop. It was only after ten tense minutes that Father flipped the switch for the light in the cavern below and I finally let myself breathe normally again.

That enforcer may want me for connection, but I knew he wouldn't hesitate to turn us in if he ever found out about our little secret.

Eventually the chimes signaled the end of the day for shops and we shut down. I completed my nightly tasks, namely tossing items with today's date into the incinerator shaft, then slipped into the back storeroom. The room was tall but still felt small with the narrow shelves, lined with boxes of provisions. Each box had carefully measured pouches within. Protein, vitamins, sugar substitute.

Everything the Society believed necessary for survival and nothing more. At the back of the room, obscured by a shelf of mental tabs, I slid open a keypad. With the correct code put in, it flashed and the soft whir of gears emanated from the wall. A section sunk in a few inches then slid open, revealing a stairway leading into darkness.

After years and years of practice, I was able to descend the stone stairs without a light, avoiding the missing chunks and overworn edges. I also knew instinctively when to stop before running into the door at the bottom. Typing on another dark keypad, I heard the faint sound of the corresponding bells on the other side before I unlocked the door and entered.

The room beyond was filled with a soft, white glow. On one side of the room stood a series of bunk beds, much older than the ones in the communal houses, but somehow more comfortable, despite the metal construction. Perhaps it's easier to wake to the morning chimes if you're more uncomfortable.

A figure rose from the beds and walked with me as I approached a metal bin in the wall.

"Was it the usual enforcer?" The man asked. He wore light blue, the color of the medical caste.

"Yes, no reason to worry." I responded, unlocking the bin and pulling it open.

The provisions I'd thrown into our incinerator shaft were there, waiting to be distributed to the crowd that had gathered at the edges of the beds. The man helped me gather the provisions and hand them out. Despite their desire to leave the Society, they had gathered in caste groups, an ingrained habit to divide and separate themselves.

Except the children.

They took their provisions and gathered together in a circle, the colors of their clothes inconsequential to their sharing with each other. For some reason, it was easier for them to break the conditioning, easier for them to adapt to change. Perhaps that was why the Society took them away so often.

Once the groups had retreated back to their bunks, I turned to our one odd guest. She hadn't bothered to come up to me for her provisions, instead munching on something she'd pulled out of that strange bag of hers. Knowing I had a few more minutes before I had to be back upstairs, I let my curiosity out and approached her. She looked up at me as I stopped a few feet away.

"May I ask you a question?"

"If it suits you." She said, talking as strangely as I'd ever heard.

"Why are you trying to break into the Society? Most people we hide are trying to get out."

She shifted, letting one leg dangle off the side of the bed. "I'm looking for my sister."

"Your sister? How could you be on the outside and she be in the Society?"

"We weren't born here, if that's what you're wondering. You may not know this, but the Society still recruits from the outside world, or rather, admits those with a strong enough desire to join."

There were outsiders in the Society? Those not born within its walls?

She gave a sad smile at the surprise on my face. "My sister decided to join a number of years ago. She went through all their trials, took every drug they asked her to, even severed ties with the rest of us. But last month, I got a letter from her. I don't know how she managed to get it to me, it was just sitting on my porch one morning. But it said she wanted out and needed my help. So here I am, breaking into the Society to find my sister and get her out."

I moved to ask another question, but the light flashing cut me off. I had to get back upstairs. Moving to the door, I paused and looked back. Many of these people would be heading out tonight, when the ash truck came, one of the few vehicles that regularly passed in and out of the Society’s walls. Those not brave enough to make the journey tonight would have to wait another month before they would get another chance to leave. Even then, they might not make it all the way to freedom. Shaking my head, I turned and made my way back up into the shop, steeling myself for a long night of anxious sleeplessness.

It was a few days before I could go downstairs again. The beds were nearly empty this time, only a handful of people electing to wait. And, of course, the outsider woman.

“Did you have a question?” She asked after a few minutes of me looming nearby.

“What’s the outside world like?”

A small smile grew on her lips, making her look less severe, less grim. She patted the edge of the bed and I eagerly took a seat.

“I doubt I have time to tell you everything, but I’ll say this: It’s beautiful. There are so many colors and different people and music.”

“Different music?” I asked. The thought that any actual music beyond the Society’s chimes was baffling to me. “Like, to tell you to do different things?”

She shook her head. “No, just to enjoy. To express oneself. To tell a story. Anything, really. And you don’t have to listen to it if you don’t want to. I suppose that’s the best part of the outside. You get to choose.”

Now that was a concept I’d always dreamed of. Choosing what to wear, what to eat, what to say. Who to love.

“What about you?” she asked, pulling my attention back to her. “Why do you stay here and not leave with one of the groups?”

“I’ve thought about it. But if I suddenly disappeared, my father would be under suspicion. This place would shut down.”

“But there are other locations in the chain to get out, right?”

I nodded. “There are, but I cannot vouch for their people. For everyone’s safety, we keep the locations and names completely secret. The only links I’ve met are the ash truck driver and the guide.”

“The guide’s the one I’m waiting for, yes?”

“Yes. He only comes once a month, sometimes not even then. It really depends on when they determine it’s safe to move people. He’ll be your best bet to get further into the Society.”

Over the next few days, I would slip back down and talk to her, asking questions about the outside and telling her what I could of the Society.

“What’s your sister like?” I finally asked one night. The idea of a sister was odd to me. In the Society you were only allowed one son and one daughter, if that. Earning the right to have a child was heavily regulated and not always looked on favorably. I had often thought it would be irritating to constantly have another person around, using the same things, asking for the same attention.

But the woman smiled warmly as she talked. “My sister is a sensitive soul. She loves to paint. The biggest, most breathtaking images you can imagine. But the world can be rough sometimes. Something happened that tore a hole in her heart and she couldn’t repair it. When it just became too much, she came here.” She frowned at this thought and I thought I saw tears gather in her eyes. “I wish I could’ve known how to help her.”

What was this feeling in my chest?

I suddenly had the urge to reach out to her, to… comfort her. The feeling was so foreign that the shock of it had me staring at my hand in wonder. She tilted her head, an eyebrow cocked.

“You okay?”

Clenching my fist, I looked up at her. “Yes. I’m well.”

The flashing of the red light caught my eye and I stood.

The woman frowned. “Seems earlier tonight.”

“The guide should be coming tonight. Father will be down here. He doesn’t let me stay, to keep me safe.”

She nodded with understanding. “Then I guess this could be the last time I see you. Thank you for everything.”

I gave a curt nod, unsure what to say. ‘Thank you’ was not a phrase we were permitted to use. Instead I gave our customary farewell.

“Safety to you.”

I was more anxious than usual that night, standing watch upstairs while Father dealt with the guide below. By the time he returned upstairs, I was bouncing my heel with anticipation.

“Off we go.”

The next month was quiet. The enforcer Tai continued to subtly insist I join him in the connection, the next wave of refugees had come and gone, and I heard nothing about the outsider woman and her sister. It was likely I never would. No doubt the chain would have them leave the Society through a different safehouse, just to be safe.

Then one evening, the power went out in the shop.

The power never went out.

“Easy, Lia.” Father said as I fidgeted in the near-dark. He crept to the shop window and looked out. “There’s something going on. Stay here. I need to check the back.”

And then I was alone in the darkening shop.

I glanced around at the racks in the shop, so understated and clinical in the light, now towering monsters. It felt as if something was crawling up and down my spine, like anything could be behind me. And then I realized why.

There was no sound. No fluorescent buzz, no ventilation, no whirring cameras.

For the first time in my life, I was completely alone.

And I think it scared me.

Chasing the last of the light, I moved to the shop window, gazing out onto the empty street. I could hear a chime going off through the glass, echoing around the darkness outside. It was a warning chime, an order to stay inside. I knew it, but I’d only actually heard it once before. The day my mother died.

Pulling the door open just a little, I listened. The chime was coming from some distance away, since it required power to reach each building. I could hear some kind of crackle up the street. Gazing that way, I could see an orange glow above the buildings. Was something on fire? I strained to hear anything else, despite the distance. A rumble came from the sky, making me jump just before a torrent of rain began. I ducked back inside to catch my breath, willing my startled heart to return to its regular rhythm.

I listened to the rain for a while, allowing its familiar drum to calm me.

Then I heard the shouting.

Peeking outside again, I saw several enforcers run down the street, passing the window in their soaking wet uniforms, the white turning to a dingy grey. Some of them branched off, going into the buildings for a moment then reappearing on the street. One enforcer threw open the shop door and caught me in a fierce glare.

“Has anyone come in here since the power went out?” He asked.

I shook my head. “No sir.”

“Could someone have hidden in the back?”

“I just came from there,” Father said, appearing as if from nowhere. “no strangers have come in.”

The enforcer nodded. “Good. Keep the doors closed and report anything suspicious.”

Then he was gone and I exchanged a worried glance with Father. Could someone be attacking? No one in the Society would dare to cause such a stir.

We stood in uneasy silence for a little bit when movement up the street caught my eye. Ice shot through me.

“Father, look.”

The movement revealed two figures, slumped against each other, stumbling along in the shadows of the street. No doubt the rain covered their footsteps from the enforcers that had just disappeared around the corner, but they would no doubt be back this way when they found no evidence of the figures anywhere.

“Stay here, Lia.” Father said before slipping out the door and carefully approaching the figures. They paused for only a moment before I saw him stoop and pick up one of the figures, then leading the other figure back to the shop. I held the door open for them, noting the drops of blood being swept away by the rain. Father didn’t even pause when they made it inside, simply rushed past me and to the back room. I pulled the door closed and followed.

The three of them were huddled against the back wall. Father had lit a candle and placed it on a shelf for light, allowing me a glimpse of the two figures as he dug around in a box for something. The figure now slumped against the wall was the outsider woman. The other was another woman, dressed in dark beige, whom I could only assume was her sister. The outsider woman, moaned quietly as Father returned and I realized that the darkness on her shirt was not the design it had been before, but blood from a wound Father was hurriedly rewrapping on her arm. The previous bandage looked to be a bit of torn cloth, bled through and ineffective.

“Wouldn’t it be safer to get her downstairs?” I whispered, not trusting the silence that still wrapped around us.

Father shook his head. “The keypads are the only way to unlock the doors, and they’re electronic.”

And the power was still out. Making us sitting ducks if the enforcers decide to come back and search the store. Then I noticed the trail of rainwater and watered-down blood behind us.

“I’ll clean up and keep a watch up front.” I said, grabbing the mop and working my way carefully, meticulously to the front of the shop. The power came back when I was nearly to the door, the sudden lights so blinding I had to pause for a moment to let my eyes adjust. I quickly scrubbed the last spots and stuck the mop in the bucket just before I heard the shop door open and looked up to see Tai.

“Lia. I thought I’d come by to check on you. The power outage has frightened several people.”

“We’re fine.” I responded. “Discovered a leak under the door, thanks to the rain.” I added, hoping to explain away why I was mopping when we’d been ordered to stay inside.

“It will be fixed.” He replied, his eyes flicking down to the mop bucket and back up. Could he see the slight, pink tint to the water? Was he going to ask to inspect the rest of the shop? The power was back, but I didn’t know if Father had been able to get the outsider and her sister down to the cavern yet, let alone cleaned up whatever blood might still be in the back room.

I watched Tai as he adjusted his uniform and I realized something seemed off about it. Like the rest of the uniforms in the Society, it consisted of a few layers: an undershirt, a mid layer, and a jacket for when you go outside. As he moved, I noticed the bottom edge of his undershirt was partially untucked and one piece was ragged.

As if a piece had been torn off.

He turned to me with another nod. “Well, then. If you notice anything suspicious, let the enforcers know. Safety to you.”

“Safety to you.” I repeated as he left the shop. I watched him through the window as he met up with another enforcer. They shared a brief conversation and then joined other enforcers who had begun to wander back along the street. The chime called for the day to end, so I flicked the switch for the red light and waited for Father to join me before we left the shop for the night.

It was the scheduled night for ash pickup.

The next time I made it to the cavern, the outsider and her sister were gone. I noticed a paper on one of the beds and picked it up. It was an image of the two sisters and at the bottom was scrawled two words:

Thank you.