Twelve Days of Short Stories - Day 1

“I hate climbing stairs. It feels like I’m always climbing stairs” Rylan heard Maximo grumble from just around the corner of the next flight of stairs. “I’ve told you before old man, just tune it out with some media” Rylan shouted after him. Although, Rylan had to admit to himself that he too, hated the amount of stairs he had to climb.

Being a Barrier Repair Engineer had been a dream of his when he was younger. A small boy with big dreams — where he would be the one to tame the wasteland that circled the metropolis he was trapped inside. He had spent countless nights staring at the picture of stars, pinned to the roof of his bunk, in the hopes that he would see real stars one day. Touch plants so numerous that a rooftop garden would be a fishbowl in an ocean of fauna.

Repairing the Barrier took him as close as humanly possible to the outside world, a few steps from freedom. It was one of a handful of jobs that would take you above the rooftops, looking down upon the chaotically-assembled houses, stalls, and offices that made up the winding streets of the megacity.

The wall was a marvel of human engineering, but one that lacked lifts. Rylan knew about lifts from the videos he consumed day in, day out. Media from before the planet-ending war was not forbidden, but it was ancient. Some fancy, important, well-dressed (and unaugmented) executive would fly up and down the side of a skyscraper ‘doing business’.

If only they could have installed lifts in the kilometre-high Barrier, Rylan thought to himself.

“If only they had put one of those bloody lifts in here” Maximo continued to complain sourly.

Rylan said nothing, but pulled up a classical nature documentary on his contacts HUD, to distract himself from the burning in his thighs.

Nothing further was said as they finished the climb up the section of the Barrier which they had been assigned today. Reaching the top, both Rylan and Maximo took time to gather themselves. They would be up here for the day, and had only been given a handful of tasks to perform; they had plenty of time to relax.

“What’s up first?” Rylan enquired after a long while.
“The magnetized dust shield has been showing some anomalous voltages overnight, so command wants us to do a system cycle” Maximo responded, a distinct lack of passion at the upcoming work coming across in his tone.
“I hate doing that. While it is cycling the dust literally gets everywhere” Rylan said.
“That’s because you insist on standing over the demarcation line when it is cycling” Maximo retorted.
“Well, that’s the only place you can see anything. It’s all endless wasteland out there, but it’s still something”

The demarcation line sat 10 metres back from the edge of the barrier; a broad faded yellow scar around the circumference of the giant wall. Every Barrier Repair Engineer was given explicit instructions to not pass it without prior authorization, but after Rylan had once accidentally crossed it, and nothing happened, he had come to the conclusion that no one was watching that closely; not like they were down in the megacity.

Rylan could hear Maximo pressing each key on the control panel behind him, as he looked out over the edge of the wall. He was confronted by the stark, lifeless wasteland that trapped him inside his concrete pen. When he had first seen it, his heart had dropped. There had always been a little sliver of hope that the feeds were fake, that the war was a fabrication. Now, a dull ache occupied the part of his heart hope had once lived in.

He was unable to mourn the realness of the wasteland, however. Expressing regret over The Institute’s part in the war could be seen as a betrayal. The Institute governed everything in the megacity, and it was particularly unforgiving of those who questioned its authority.

The familiar hum of the magnetic lines of the Barrier died out. When they had fully shut down, an eerie silence fell over both of the engineers. A few more key presses from behind Maximo and the low hum began to build again.

At that moment, when the barrier was off, dust peppered the front of Rylan’s uniform. Unlike other times, a small amount got in his eye. He rubbed his eye, dislodging his contact HUD, causing it to power off.

His breath caught. Where once an inescapable wasteland lay, now a bright green forest stood. Trees upon trees, upon trees, stretching over the horizon.

Rylan’s contact HUD rebooted, and the forest became a sandy no-man’s-land once more; overlaid with air quality stats and a notification from his sister.

“Rylan, you OK buddy?” Maximo enquired, although Rylan was not listening. He reached up and pulled out his contact HUD to check it wasn’t a momentary moment of madness.

The forest was beautiful. A beautiful crystal-clear lake nestled among them. Birds circled the treetops.

“Rylan, you good?” Maximo asked again, more concern in his voice this time.

Rylan snapped back to reality. “Yeah man, just admiring the view” he hastily cobbled together, not letting too much of his panic spill over to his words.

“Alright, we got work to do, come on” Maximo called after him as he began walking down the Barrier. “Air filters can’t clean themselves”.

Thoughts ravaged Rylan’s mind. What was real? The wasteland he had known all his life? The contact HUDs were designed to be worn from birth; he had experienced very little without them. Sure they broke, but another pair could be picked up within the hour.

Had they been hiding the real world from him?

What should he do now?