The 'More

The rain was steady now, not yet strong enough. A stream had formed, coming from the city streets and emptying into the canal leading to the wall, leading to her feet. No one knew where she was. It was dangerous, not having her cuff, her identification. The problem, however, was that the government could track her through the cuff. Urmi couldn’t afford to be tracked, cameras watched the wall, from every angle, and they were going to see her.

The system was automated, and thus predictable. As soon as the cameras spotted her running from the wall, they would try and lock onto her cuff, only to find it was missing. Almost simultaneously, the drones would scramble from the top of the wall, typically no less than a few miles away, there in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, the drain had a nest right above it, so that meant seconds. People liked to ride the drain, so to speak, transporting goods to the south of the harbor, where the river reemerged from beneath the city. There were even rumors of people attempting the transit, some dying.

Since it was night, the drones would follow her heat signature, tracking her through the dark. The storm, however, would down the drones. In fact, it was the reason the weather forecast was often wrong, at least for those outside of the wall. It was one of the first things that made Urmi question the information they received from GlobalNet, heavy rain when none was in the forecast. It was also the reason she knew a massive storm was bearing down on the city.

When she was a child, before the Lesses arrived, her father had been teaching her about electronics, they had even made their own weather station. The top of her place still had the device, recording temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure. Before he had died, he had talked about the satellites and their ability to watch the world. Years ago, the government had locked them down, but she could pull images from Meteor M2, an old Russian satellite that still passed overhead, long past its supposed lifetime.

Urmi could feel a slight chill emanating through the grips she wore on her feet, the water reached her ankles, now. Such technology was patented by SecureUS, the corporation responsible for manning the wall, and merely possessing it was illegal. It would allow her to move through the water, keeping her footing regardless of how fast she needed to run. The grips would even give her support on slopes and walls, like those of the canal, or even a building. The grips were standard issue for SecureUS guards, she had actually stolen them from within the wall.

The wall itself was quite massive, built between buildings in the existing city, some of which were twenty or more stories high. What most people on the outside did not know was that the wall was actually two walls, an inner and outer wall, encompassing an entire city block between. SecureUS corporate offices were located within, as well as the massive operations for transporting and distributing goods to the people outside of the wall. The wall had been built when she was still a child.

Urmi had been too young to understand what was going on, but the world had torn itself apart. It began long before her own birth, decades prior. All she knew was hiding, the sounds of masses of people colliding with one another. The ‘More seemed like as good a place as any, to the Lesses. Twenty-thousand row homes stood vacant when the fighting began. The Lesses came from every direction, bringing all the supplies they could, building atop and out from the vacancies.

The ‘Mores rejected them at first, but they were overwhelmed, eventually coming together to defend what neighborhoods they could. Most of the ‘Mores had little more than the Lesses, only a roof, still plenty to fight for. The fighting raged, more people moved toward the cities as trade stopped flowing inland from the ports. No one had any money, rations were handed out by the government, but one had to be where they were handed out to receive them. That was the cities.

The government nearly collapsed, only surviving by relenting to the power of corporations, who walled themselves off and employed private armies to protect their investments. In several cities, entire downtown areas were walled in, guarded by SecureUS, who was employed by many corporations for protection. At certain points, one could even enter the downtown area, but you had to belong there. It was a lesson Urmi had learned early, the real Mores lived inside the wall, everyone outside were now the Lesses.

Here she was, probably the only person attempting to get out from inside of the wall. With the exception of the art tours, rich people in armored buses driving outside of the wall to observe the graffiti, and that one guy she saw throw himself off the top of the wall when she was still a teenager, no one left the wall. Sure, in the past, there had been thieves that supposedly robbed the rich inside the wall, or prisoners that had escaped, but no one had heard anything but rumors for years. Even those lucky enough to get scholarships to colleges inside of the wall knew it was a one-way ticket.

Older people still liked to talk about when there had been enough for everyone, when stores existed outside the wall. Most people had a job and money, they could get things at stores, like her father’s. Now, few had either. What little they had was provided for free, these days. Everyone was given a CC, a Communications Cuff, by the government. It connected you to GlobalNet, allowed you to get rations and ELs, clothing from EverLast. From your cuff, you could even request batteries and solar tape for your home, primarily for heating. And, of course, a Window, what the old timers referred to as a television.

It was more than that, though, it became the center around which most people’s worlds revolved. Most of the Lesses received their education through their Window, one had to complete school to access all features. It was paced to keep most children in school till eighteen. Urmi finished when she was fourteen, it had been her outlet after her father died. Beyond that, it was news and entertainment, keeping the masses both informed and occupied. Some people even made some real money, or found a way to move up in the world, it did have its opportunities, even if they were few and far between.

Urmi had been inside of the wall before, creeping through the buildings, mostly abandoned, weaving around SecureUS patrols. This time had been different. This time, she had made it to the top of a building along the inside wall. She had even camped out on the roof, watching the city during the day. It amazed her how less crowded things seemed. Everything was more organized, streets remained open, vehicles even traversing them. Clean, it looked so clean. Outside of the wall, few roads remained unimpeded by slums, and that was not even considering the trash.

The good news was that those slums would quickly give her cover. Without the drones to tail her, she could easily slip away. Her raincloak would provide little protection from the coming torrential downpour, but it would not become a burden by absorbing water, either. Mainly, though, it would give her cover from the cameras, it had done its job on the roof, and she could easily discard it. They wouldn’t be able to identify her.

Urmi needed more rain, more wind. It would not be a good thing, though. Not for the city, not for those outside of the wall. The storm was massive, nothing like this had hit the ‘More in her lifetime. Storms had come and gone, seemingly stronger and stronger, some had even killed many. It was why the canal had been built, to preserve the wall, channeling the water under the city and into the bay on the other side. The old roads became rivers when the storms came, the old infrastructure could not handle the rain that fell these days.

She had seen it coming from the top of the building, one of many making up the inside wall, the clouds dominated the horizon to the southeast. Now, standing here as they overtook the city, she could do nothing but wait. Urmi knew what was about to happen, and had even told a few others. If she made it back to her place, hidden above her father’s burned out shop, she would be safe, the foundation below her would hold as the water weaved through the floor below. She had to make it, Urmi had worked too hard for what she had.

The guilt stung, but she knew there was nothing she could do about it. People would die, and she was using it as cover. What she had she could not let go of now, though. Urmi had to persist, had to succeed, the information would set her free. The wind began to roar, the water reaching her knees, the edge of the rain cloak began floating behind her. Urmi pulled the braids of her hair tight behind her head, wrapped a filter scarf around her mouth and nose, and pulled the hood of the cloak up. Goggles down, it was time.

Urmi ran out from between the bars, and into the canal, pushing herself out of the knee deep water. Immediately, cameras caught her and flood lights mounted to the wall snapped on, pulling sheets of white light reflecting off the pouring rain over her eyes. She stopped, focusing on the shadow of her form as her goggles adjusted, compensating for the change in light. That had been unexpected, the amount of rain and light probably blinded both her and the cameras. A few moments later, she could see again, and continued running.

A zipping sound flew past her and slammed into the side of the canal, showering sparks through the rain. She was surprised to see the drones trying at all, there was no way they could fly in this. Another careened past the edge of the canal and crashed out of sight. Urmi ran as fast as she could, the slums slowly becoming visible through the rain, where the canal turned into the road.

Flood lights surged on in front of her, thankfully her goggles were already set. Something was waiting for her, and that was enough to change plans. Urmi scampered up the side of the canal, now only about ten feet deep, grabbing the edge. Water ran around her hands and down the side of the canal as she pulled herself up. Laying down, she rolled under the railing. Crouching, she took her bearings, the lights attempting to spot her. A hundred feet, the slums were close.

She ran away from the lights, squeezing into the darkness of an alley. Water was running anywhere it could, pulling trash and debris with it, and it was no different in confined areas. Urmi didn’t want to be here long, hidden or not, there were few escape routes. Pushing her way past some boxes, she made her way out into what could once have been considered a street. The cracked and cratered surface seemed smooth for once, the water evening it out.

Darting across the road, Urmi started uphill, against the water. The wind was becoming more and more brutal, tossing debris down from the tops of the slums and onto the road. Ahead of her, the slums from each side reached out into the road, narrowing. The water was surging between the two homes, even pouring through their doorways. She stepped slowly through the rising rapids, allowing her grips to get sufficient friction so her feet were not pulled out from under her. The street behind her flooded with light.

Urmi froze against the corner of the hut. The water ran down the middle of the road right next to her, the light pulling back and forth across her several times, searching. She didn’t want to move to look, but was fairly certain they had not spotted her, the light kept moving past her. The hut creaked as something large flowed down the gap in the road next to her, then a gust of wind ripped the corrugated metal roof right off, slamming it into the ground behind her. She shook. No, the hut was shaking. Then it gave way.

The hut ripped away from the road where it had been bolted, sweeping Urmi from her feet. She could see the metal roof in the water ahead of her, reflecting the light from the flood lamps at the end of the street, now centered on her and the remains of the hut racing toward it. The current was too strong, there was nothing for her to do. The debris in front of her began to flow around the flood lamps, except for the roof, which pitched up against the side of some sort of armored vehicle. A few moments later, she slammed into the roof, pinned beneath the lights.

Something slammed into her back and spun off away from her. The corrugated metal gave her something to clutch to, and she was able to pull her feet up to get the grips on it, giving her footing. Laboriously, she began to climb, the water keeping her pinned to the metal. Taking a moment to rest, she looked up the street, it had been cleared by the water, now a river she was in the middle of. People helped one another from the water, pulling them up onto the more permanent structures built long ago.

The top of the armored vehicle opened up, and someone emerged into the rain and wind. They spun a flashlight around, checking the water close to the vehicle. Urmi ducked her head below the edge of corrugated metal as the light spun toward her. After a minute, the man closed the hatch over himself, audibly regretting having to brave the elements. A moment later, the vehicle lurched.

Urmi scampered up the metal sheet as the personnel carrier began moving out of the river, grasping ahold of a ladder rung built into its side as the former roof was ripped from beneath her legs and carried downroad. Holding on, she let the vehicle clear her of the current, before dropping herself next to an old row home. Urmi let the water run along and over her, until the vehicle turned out of sight. SecureUS was out in force in the storm, it probably had something to do with ensuring the integrity of the wall.

Spitting the breath she was holding as she lifted her head out the water, she looked around. The goggles quickly shed the water, even as more rain pounded them. The row home next to her rose like an island out of the water pooling around it, rivers rushing both in front and behind. Every road would now be like this, every basement flooded, there was no where for the water to go but everywhere. Urmi wished she could see the canal, it would not be long before it was spectacular. She guessed that even the engineers didn’t know if it would save the wall this time.

Planting her feet for a good grip, she pulled herself into a crouch. Getting her bearings, she realized she was only a block or two from the Alameda, one of the few roads kept clear. SecureUS kept the road cleared in case they needed it for transport north from the wall. The Lesses had learned not to build there simply because of the rain. She should be able to skirt along the houses that bordered the road, then make it to her place, a few blocks West.

When she made it to the road, she found it a raging river. The storm cycled counterclockwise, pulling the wind and rain from the Northeast. A good bit of that rain was now this river. South of her, there was another personnel carrier, obviously here monitoring the water flowing toward the wall. A stake had even been driven into the ground on the other side of the road, measuring how deep the river had become. People in the homes to the North could be seen peering out, ensuring the water had not yet reached their porches.

Urmi looped back, around behind the homes, through an alleyway. There was less than a foot of water, but plenty of solar tape was floating by her. The tape could stick to nearly anything, the solar film in it pulling energy from he sun and depositing it in the wires running through the middle. At the end, you could simply fold the tape in half to break the wires out of the film and connect them into a battery, or attach it to another length of tape, if needed. The design was ingenious, it was simply not meant to stand up to a hurricane.

After making her way a couple of blocks, she turned a corner and found the comfort of the charred wall of her father’s store. The store had been looted and burned, her father stopping the fire as her mother, sister and her all hid above. He never made it upstairs, though, someone killed him before he could make it back. Urmi recalled the smoke, the people, everywhere. More than anything, though, it was the noise. Sometimes it still haunted her, but the neighborhood had become quiet enough in recent years to help.

The old storefront was completely burned out, only three brick arches remaining. The two to the left were the store, the one on the right leading to the staircase above. The door to the staircase had been burned down, but the gate had held, protecting mother and daughters. Urmi looked around, it was always dangerous opening the gate, one never knew who they could trust anymore.

A glint caught her eye from an alley across the way. The light above the alley was usually lit, but not now. It could have been the storm, but the light itself was still there, just not on. Something was waiting in the alley, watching. From the size of the darkness, Urmi guessed another personnel carrier could even be lurking.

Back along the side of her father’s shop she retreated. She was going to have to sneak back in, something she rarely did because she did not want anyone else knowing the way. On the second floor, there was a gap in the bricks, with a sliding metal wall blocking the entrance. She had hidden the latch, and could move it just enough to squeeze in between the brick and drywall. Pushing some insulation up and other parts down, she could maneuver ten feet before swinging a section of the interior wall open.

Making sure no one was about, Urmi began climbing and made her way inside. After closing the wall behind her, she immediately heard voices. There were at least two people talking with one another, looking about.

“Just relax, either she’ll show up or she won’t.”

“Guess it’s better than being out in this mess.”

“She’s probably helping someone or just got caught up and couldn’t make it back.”

“Her cuff shows she’s here, she took it off.”

“So what? People do it all the time these days.”

“It’s still illegal.”

“Whatever, everyone does it. Why you guys out here, anyway?”

“Someone is sneaking in and out of the wall. We don’t even know how they get in, but we catch them running out every so often. We just want to know why.”

“Probably just curiosity, people got nothin’ else to do. How’d ya pin her down?”

“I don’t know, some algorithm or something checks for patterns, correlates data, pops names out. She’s one of them, one of too many.”

“Sounds like SecureUS needs to give her a job.”

“Believe it or not, that is a possibility.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, we pay you, don’t we?”

“Not well.”

“Better than nothing, don’t forget that.”

“How long we gotta be here?”

“It’s only been an hour, be patient.”

So, they were here for her, but they didn’t know what she was doing. Urmi pulled off her small satchel and hung it off a protruding nail, she definitely wouldn’t want to be caught with that. Sneaking back out into the storm, she made her way down to the street again and retreated a block behind the house. She needed an excuse. Mrs. Perkins.

A few blocks away, an old blind woman still lived. Sometimes Urmi would visit, listening to her tell stories about when she could walk around the city as a kid, listening to all the sounds. She should check up on her, anyway, make sure everything was okay.

Urmi knew the code to enter the house, ringing the bell just inside the door to announce her arrival.

“Who is it?” Mrs. Perkins called out.

“Urmi, my dear. Just wanted to check in on you.”

“Come in, come in, I’ll make tea.”

“I’m just going to check your basement, make sure you aren’t flooding.”

“Okay.”

Urmi knew the basement wasn’t flooding, it never did, but she had a lockbox stowed in the basement. Punching in the code, she opened it, finding some gear, including boots, a change of clothes, and some money. She quickly changed and, after attempting to get as much water off of the rest of the gear, stashed it away. Satisfied she at least looked different than what anyone had witnessed fleeing from the wall, she made her way upstairs to the kitchen.

“Almost ready,” Mrs. Perkins said as she walked in. “Everything okay down there?”

“Yeah, the work we did a couple of years ago is holding well. Not a bit of water!”

“So, how’d you know about this storm coming? I didn’t hear anything about it till the last minute.”

“Trade secrets, my dear.”

Perkins poured the tea and they sat and chatted. Urmi made sure that she had everything she needed to weather the storm, telling her it would be a couple of days, and just to message her should anything else be needed. An hour had passed, enough time to make it plausible, and Mrs. Perkins likely didn’t know the time, anyway.

The trip back was a great deal more uncomfortable. The clothing she now wore, especially the boots, became instantly waterlogged and heavy. She didn’t have a rain cloak, not that it would have helped much at all, but what she missed most were her goggles. Fighting through the rain and wind, she slowly made her way home, making sure she came up the road leading to the front of her place.

The gate was locked, as she had left it. If they were waiting for her, the illusion of an empty place was intact. Fumbling with her keys, she opened the gate and locked it behind her. Making her way up the stairs, the door opened before her.

“Please come in,” a well dressed man said, holding the door. She could see his raincoat hanging on the wall, it reminded her of one from the old black and white movies, certainly not something from outside of the wall.

Stopping in her tracks, she replied, “Who are you?”

“Agent Walker, SecureUS. We just want to have a chat, you’re not in trouble.”

“Why are you in my house?”

“Please forgive the intrusion, but the storm was quite uncomfortable.”

Urmi didn’t have a choice. The agent knew it. Urmi knew it, which is why she had returned in the first place. Slowly, she made her way up and through the door. The other man was dressed like a Less, he lived outside of the wall.

“And, you are?”

“Jeremy, just a guide really.”

“Alright, you gentlemen mind if I change into something dry?” she asked, grabbing some clothes from a dresser.

“Go ahead,” replied the agent.

Taking the clothes into the bathroom, she shut the door, dried off, and put on the new cloths, hanging the soaking ones to dry over the shower door. While she was at it, she snagged her cuff, which she had left on the sink, and put it on. Urmi gave up trying to dry her hair and just slung the towel around her neck to keep it from dampening her sweater.

Taking a seat in a chair in the living room, she asked, “So, what can I do for you, Agent Walker? Jeremy?”

Jeremy looked over at the agent.

“I see you found your cuff.”

“Yeah, was taking a shower when I realized I should check on Mrs. Perkins, a few blocks away, and old blind woman I know. Ran out without putting it on, I guess.”

“You haven’t had it on for a few days.”

“Haven’t left the house for a few days.”

“And, when did you leave to check on Mrs. Perkins?”

“Two, maybe three hours ago. Not certain, exactly.”

“You ever been inside the wall?” the agent asked, without skipping a beat.

“Sometimes I do courier work, packages coming out here from the inside, pick them up at the wall, but that’s it. Why?”

“We are looking for someone, that’s all.”

“Lived my whole life out here, was a child when they built that wall. It’s been, what, a couple of decades?”

“Something like that. Look, if you go out again, do me a favor, put on your cuff.”

“Even in this?” she replied, referring to the storm howling around them.

“It is weather proof.”

“There’s a lot of weather out there, boss,” Jeremy said.

“Your’s is still working, isn’t it?”

Pulling up his sleeve, Jeremy confirmed it was, and nodded.

“Sorry to intrude, thank you for your time,” the agent said, gesturing to Jeremy to get out. Snagging his coat, he turned around. “If you think of anything, just ask for me at the wall.”

Urmi walked them back down into the hurricane, locking the gate behind them. She watched as they ran across the street and into the alley, where the personnel carrier awaited them, the lights coming on as they approached. They would be watching her a lot closer now, or some system would be, given the algorithm she had overheard them talking about. Urmi would have to be more careful.

Walking back up the stairs, she listened to the wind blow, the beat of the rain upon the windows. They were lucky here, just enough inland to make a difference, just enough elevation to ensure the water did not pool. Looking around, Urmi took a survey of things, searching to make sure nothing had been left behind, no cameras, no microphones. When she was content things were safe, she opened up the bookshelves that dominated the left wall of the living room, pulling a dining room chair over, as the hidden desk and computers emerged. The satellite image of the storm slamming into the East Coast was daunting, but she had more pressing matters to deal with.

Scanning back through the security camera footage, she watched as the two came into her place and made themselves comfortable. They just sat down and talked for the better part of a couple of hours, looking around casually, but not disturbing anything. It did not appear they had left anything for her to be worried about, which meant they were far from sure that she was who they were looking for. Had she even heard some disdain in the agent’s voice when mentioning the algorithm? He must not have trusted the system.

Moving to the wall, she pivoted it open and stepped inside, reaching out and grabbing the satchel. Closing things up, she walked back to her desk and pulled out a small container. Inside was a single microcard, what she had worked so hard to bring out from within the wall. At the university, they studied all sorts of things, including the history of GlobalNet, and its predecessor, the Internet. She had been given data from one of their servers.

Inside were two folders, one entitled Internet2017 and the other Network. Along with the folders was a README file she opened first.

The Internet changed, slowly at first, then all at once. It was replaced by GlobalNet, the lie the masses now live. 2017 was the last year the Internet was truly pure. While the data in that folder is not the complete Internet, it has many large relevant portions, including major news, government and corporate websites, Wikipedia and other large information deposits, as well as some more social and collaborative systems. The differences between the Internet of 2017 and GlobalNet are truly eye-opening.

The second folder may be of less use, but one never knows. They are old network infrastructure diagrams for Baltimore. It may be possible to salvage equipment and begin to establish a way of communicating through the wall (under it), to work together to better inform the masses. Instructions and manuals are included, if equipment can be found outside of the wall. Until then, as marked on the diagrams, we will be sending light through old optical fiber cabling, hoping that one day, a connection will be made. If nothing else, it is a symbolic attempt to spread the light of knowledge beyond the wall.

Best of luck, to us all.

-GOA

• Short Story
• Distopian