Lee Kerr - Welcome to the Apocalypse

He releases his hold on my neck and embraces me lightly, pulling me closer to the window. ‘Just imagine what we can achieve with all these likeminded individuals working as part of a bigger team in a small and co-operative town. And, yes, they need the money to pay for it, but doesn’t the fact that they have acquired wealth indicate that they are more successful, better educated and more equipped to cope than most people? It will not be perfect and it will be hard and that is the reason why we must have the right people, people who can work together to achieve this vision of our new world.’

I don’t answer. Instead, I look down, distracted by a cockroach scuttling along the floor, finding free passage into areas that would normally have been off limits to its kind. It worries me how quickly their numbers have grown. Pest control became a thing of the past when the army of gardeners deserted this place. The thing is large and seems adventurous; no longer caring about what humans will do to it. I’ve always hated them and as it comes closer to my shoes I instinctively pull away. I feel sweat dripping off me now, caused both by the heat of Lawrence’s body coupled and the mid-afternoon sun beating through the windows, now that we can no longer afford air conditioning.

It’s just about to reach my foot when Lawrence finally sees what has distracted me from his latest sermon. He doesn’t hesitate for a moment and stands on it; the crushing sound echoes in my ears and I see its guts spreading out across the floor. He looks down at me, his face expressionless. ‘We don’t have time to clear piles of ironing; we can’t promise that the next job will earn enough to pay back a debt that never seems to end. This isn’t about families or feuds. This isn’t even about me, this is about our collective legacy.’

I nod, trying to prise my way out of his hold, knowing all too well what is coming next. He will explain in much detail the failures of my side of the family. This will be followed by threats that I will be sent back to experience the last days with my parents, which would be something I would cherish if it wasn’t for the fact they have sacrificed everything to put me here. I imagine turning up at home, desperately trying to find my abandoned parents. Their faces would be a mixture of relief and disappointment. And then there is Destiny – how can I leave her?

‘My company and my creation will live on long after I am gone. The new world will remember what happened here. An organisation that operates correctly must never think about just one individual. We are all just small cogs that allow the whole unit to survive.’

Another cockroach crawls along the floor. It continues over the grey tiles until it finds the other cockroach’s remains. We both look down at it, both watching where it goes, knowing there will be another thousand where this one has come from. It sees its friend, or perhaps its brother, up close; it must somehow know that it’s dead. The insides are spread all around for what would seem like a battleground measured in many metres if they were human beings.

Lawrence’s foot moves, ready to strike another blow to the crawling kind, but instead he kicks it away and looks at me. ‘Henry, never forget that both corporations and cockroaches are able to endure. Both can adapt and both can grow rapidly, and both think about the whole, rather than just one or two or ten. Humans will always think about themselves as individuals but bring them together under a religion, a dictatorship or in a corporation, and then suddenly they find they have a collective purpose. If your parents do not make the final list then you must find a way to appreciate the bigger picture, to understand that space is limited. You need to take an objective view of these strange times we now live in.’

I take a deep breath and nod, knowing there isn’t much else I can do. ‘I hear what you’re saying, Lawrence, I really do. So I assume that feeling includes Destiny, as well?’

He stares out of the window, not dignifying my question with a look. ‘Don’t test me by talking about the thing most precious to me, Henry. Not today.’

‘The helicopters are about to land,’ Tyrell says to Lawrence.

He nods in return, then grabs Tyrell’s shoulder, shaking his hand and looking down at him like he does with most people. He squeezes it tight, as though he wants to force his thoughts into the mind of his poor subject. ‘This is the moment we have been waiting for, my dear friend. The time is fast approaching when everything will come together, with my technology and the ability of the Chinese to build anything quickly and efficiently.’

Tyrell nods. ‘This will be a special moment in the history of man, of that I am sure.’

‘It will indeed,’ Lawrence says, then pulls away, all too soon for my liking. He never gives Tyrell the time that he needs, or the respect he really deserves.

But this time Tyrell seems to see this lack of attention and continues to shake his hand, his firm grip keeping Lawrence in the same spot. ‘You won’t be forgetting my little island in all of this, will you?’

Lawrence laughs out loud, looking first at me and then settling his eyes on Tyrell. He gazes at him with some sort of a hypnotic stare. It has been very clear that he is trying to keep control of what has been a delicate situation since the moment we landed here. ‘Now, why would I do that? We need each other and all of us will be inter-dependent forever. Just think about how impossible it would be to launch the new cities without your island.’

‘And my people?’ Tyrell asks.

‘Must we do this now?’ Lawrence says, looking to the open sky, making it clear where his energy is focused. ‘You will get the fair percentage, just as we talked about. There isn’t room for everyone and you know that.’

Tyrell nods, knowing what we all know, having been given the same speech I have heard many times before. ‘There had better be a balance, black and white, that’s all I’m saying.’

Lawrence gives a slow and pronounced nod in return. ‘There will be fairness, as I have always assured you.’

‘I do not think that this is the same thing, not in the eyes of different men.’

‘It will be in my eyes,’ Lawrence says, pulling Tyrell forward. ‘Now come on, they will arrive in a moment. We are going to build this new world, cloud by cloud. Look around you and think about what we are going to create in just a few weeks.’

I watch them, my eyes following them both as I look at what is already here. It’s easy to take the hotel for granted, but I never do. I have never stayed anywhere like this place and even though half of the five-star resort is closed off this place still amazes me. It has more pools than I have owned swimming trunks in my short life, but it’s when we turn 180 degrees and see what is behind us – what has replaced the acres of gardens – that I really feel my heart set on fire. A concrete platform stretches across the complex, white and solid with long steel slats running through it. It’s like a patchwork design: more a piece of art than engineering. These slats all join together, woven into a complex pattern that houses the bolts drilled deep into the ground, all part of the plan to keep everything in the sky attached to the earth. To the left is the launch centre – a hastily constructed platform of scaffolding without any luxuries, not even windows. In this heat they aren’t needed but when I see the rows of desks with computers sitting on them, all exposed to sun and sand, I wonder if the Chinese will think of us as a little amateurish.

We all step onto the concrete structure and start to walk along the red carpet that leads to the central building. The carpet feels soft under my shoes – one of the few luxuries still allowed. They walk a few more paces and then stop, both looking up at what has been named ‘Cloud Reach’. It’s one of the few prototypes that have already journeyed to the clouds and back, proving that Lawrence’s vision can be realised. Measuring thirty feet in diameter, it isn’t ever going to be big enough for no more than a lucky handful to fit inside, but it proves that this wild concept can work. Inside is a small control room, the engine area and a boardroom – the place where Lawrence has sold dreams to so many of those who are desperate to be permanent survivors.