Apex Magazine - July 2009 (Issue 1) by Apex Publications

Author:Apex Publications
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: jennifer pelland, apex publications, jason sizemore, glenn lewis gillette, jm mcdermott, apex magazine, apex book company

Glenn Lewis Gillette has a storied publishing record reaching back to the early 1970s when two of his stories appeared in Analog. More recently, his worked has appeared in The Edge of Propinquity, The Jewish Spectator, and the anthology Mystic Signals 2.

…That Has Such People in It

Jennifer Pelland

When you voluntarily walked underground, you had no idea how long you’d be there.

People said you were crazy for doing it, but you’d been called crazy, and worse, for years.

Besides, the government said they were doing it for a good reason. When the aliens intercepted our Voyager 1 probe and told us they were on their way to Earth to evaluate us for membership in their confederation, the planet collectively decided to put its best foot forward. If the aliens knew just how many humans were poor, or homeless, or uneducated, or just flat-out broken, Earth’s membership application might be denied.

And that meant sweeping people like you under the rug, at least for a little while.

So you got in the very short voluntary line to drive out to live in a massive warren of old underground bunkers left over from Cold War days. It had to beat living on the street, begging for change and leftovers, and scrounging cigarette butts from the trash to get whatever nicotine buzz was left in them. All the voices in your head were in agreement—they wanted a bed, and three square meals a day, and a roof over that head of yours that they lived in.

It wasn’t bad underground. Sure, you didn’t get to see the sun, and they wouldn’t bring you any alcohol or cigarettes, but it was clean, and dry, and warm, and your clothes weren’t stiff and itchy. And a doctor brought you pills every day that made the voices in your head quiet down enough that your voice was now always the one in charge.

The rest of the planet commended you for your sacrifice. Told you the aliens were sure to share all sorts of marvelous technology with us, and that you’d get to see it soon enough. That Earth would finally eliminate poverty, disease, pollution, illiteracy, and all sorts of ills, so long as you stayed down there and didn’t queer the deal.

You carved out a little corner for yourself, near one of the Plexiglas-covered televisions, and invited two aging hookers and a toothless junkie to share it with you. It was more of a home and a family than you’d ever had. It was almost nice.

And then the people who didn’t come willingly joined you underground.

Then it wasn’t so nice anymore.

The new people rioted from the moment they were forced off of the busses. They mobbed the food delivery trucks, taking their share and yours, and threw it at the cameras, the televisions, the doors, the trucks, each other. They ran through the bunkers, tearing up mattresses and screaming that they’d burn the place down if they could only start a fire.

You scraped as much food from the walls as you could and ran to your little corner to ride it out.

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