Ben Chaney - Son of Sedonia

Out of the panic crept the most intense anxiety Liani had ever felt. Not helped by Sato’s official declaration of a state of emergency and martial law. She tried to focus on flying Corey’s clunky-ass van in a straight line. Bumper to bumper, three-level traffic snaked its way forward for miles through Sedonia’s main avenues, and everywhere, SCPD cruisers patrolled the airspace. Their shiny, unused cannon attachments glinted in the sun, begging to unleash violence.

Corey may or may not have suggested several times that they switch places, but his voice was far away. Remote against the noise of her brain as it tried to make sense of everything. They hadn’t flown far into the fringe districts of the Inner Ring when the emergency broadcast message appeared in her Neural.

‘ ALERT: All civilian traffic is hereby grounded until further notice. Evacuations to the eastern zones will be coordinated via Superway. Any civilian vehicles in violation of the No-Fly Mandate will be considered enemy combatants. ’

“They’re not screwing around…” Liani said. Corey didn’t seem to hear her, absorbed in some messaging window in his Neural. He had it set in privacy mode. So shady.

“Hey!” she shouted, slugging Corey in the arm, “ Help me , would you? I’m kinda freaking out here! Where do I park this thing so we don’t get blown up?”

“Oh, right, uhh,” he swiped the conversation away, and pulled up the local GPS, “Set it down over… there. Wellington Plaza. There’s a station within walking distance.”

“Great! Wellington! Whatever!” Liani pushed down on the flight sticks. The harsh, lurching dive of the van made her stomach jump into her throat. Matteo and Corey both grasped frantically for the safety handles.

“Just… take it easy, okay? We’ll be fine,” said Corey. Normally his caretaker act was kind of dopey and sweet. Right now she wanted to bury her fist in his face. It’s really not my fault this thing handles like a giant ham with humming bird wings! Asshole.

“Okay,” was all she said. Liani brought the van to a stuttering stop among the other randomly parked transports in the plaza.

“Not bad, Li-Li,” Corey said, “thanks for not wrecking her.” This time, his shit-eating grin managed to loosen some of her tangled nerves. She still shot him a dirty look. As the cockpit and passenger doors squeaked open, the three of them got a first-hand look at the chaos on the ground.

Wellington was a nowhere place on the map. Just another strip mall tier with attached housing complexes and low-rent office space. Certain kinds of people lived their whole lives in these neighborhoods. Today, all kinds clogged the sidewalks and bridges. Wealthy celebutantes on their way back to the Mesa from vacation had to carry their designer bags alongside waiters, shop owners, and cart retrieval kids from the grocery store. Even the homeless. Some had their families with them. Most others weren’t so lucky, trying to dial their loved ones through jammed bandwidth in their Neurals.

Liani, Corey, and Matteo walked to the end of the queue for Wellington Station, and started the wait. Seeing everybody glued to their Neu feeds, Liani reached to touch her temple. Stopped. Right. No unnecessary signals. They didn’t have the rings anymore, and couldn’t risk any waves. She hadn’t even realized she was about to turn it on. Matteo was the only one around who didn’t have some kind of window up. Now you know he’s not from around here.

The crash of a storefront window sent a shock through the crowd, interrupting their idle Neu browsing. Looters climbed through the broken glass, and came out with electronics, sack-fulls of credit sticks, and anything else that wasn’t nailed down. The owners soon gave up trying to stop them. To her disgust, Liani saw a cop standing oblivious beside the crowd, directing traffic to the station. As she came up with the particulars of her rant, she got a better look at his face. Blond and fat-faced with an outbreak of freckles on his cheeks.

“Jesus, he can’t be over eighteen!” she said.

“Early graduation from the Academy,” said Corey, “Must’ve just dumped ’em onto the streets; all the real cops either off fighting or patrolling the skyline.”

The young officer, crestfallen, seemed to hear him. Matteo scanned the crowd and surrounding sky for any sign of trouble. Liani sighed. Poor kid . She felt the need to say something to him. Though, she had little comfort of her own to give.

“Hey Matteo,” she said as they shuffled forward with the thickening queue. Hearing his name, the boy brightened a little. “You know much about the East Side?”

He shook his head, ‘No.’

“I think you’ll like it. A lot of public green zones, cute little privately owned cafes and coffee shops, all kinds of theaters and museums. With so many of us going there, a lot of it will probably be open for us to check out,” Liani said.

“If they let us out of whatever refugee camp the stick us in… and if we’re not caught and branded traitors in the meantime,” Corey added.

“Not helping,” said Liani. Corey pressed his lips together and darkened. She rolled her eyes, feeling the dead air effect he always got when he had something else to say. Usually a lot.

“We shouldn’t go East,” Corey said, finally bursting.

“And there it is. Why shouldn’t we go East, Corey?” It had been a long night and an even longer day. Her hands still trembled from their near-death experience in the Outer Ring. She wanted to go further than East, she wanted to head out past the coastline and Sedonia Bay to one of the outlying island chains and hide under a martini bar. But here she was. Saving the boy from out of town. Doing the ‘right thing.’ Whatever the hell that means. Liani braced herself.

“Matteo’s memories. The files . They tie all this together,” Corey dialed his voice to a whisper, “The City, the Slums, Rindal, the Revolution, everything! We have to get back to Illyk and his people. Spread the story and—”

Liani cut him off, straining to keep her voice low at a hoarse whisper.

“That’s suicide! Even if it were possible… Jesus! You don’t even know what they found in his head, you just have theories!” People around them began taking notice with sideways glances. Information drifted together in Liani’s head and her green eyes went wide. “You’ve been talking to them…?”

“It is possible, Li. And we have to. This City’s time has been coming for decades. You can’t have so few people with so much and so many with so little. The many will always realize that they hold the real power. It’s started with the Slums and it’s continuing into the Outer Ring. It’ll all be for nothing if we don’t wake people up to the truth!”

“Truth,” Matteo said, as though the word punched a fresh bruise. He hadn’t said one word since the escape, seemingly lost in some corner of his brain. Liani had heard that enhanced, clear memory was a side effect of popping the Neural firewall, lasting a good while after. Like vivid, waking dreams.

“What happened to him belongs to him , you asshole,” said Liani, “We can’t force him to hand over the worst parts of his life for your crazy ideals!”

“Crazy, Liani? Really? After all we’ve seen? All you’ve seen?” Corey said.

“What is the truth?” asked Matteo.

“I knew it! I knew before this is over, you’d rub that in my face! I hate that I didn’t act in time! I’ll never forgive myself! But that doesn’t change the fact that Matteo—”

“This is bigger than him, Li! Bigger than all of us!”