Dreams Must Die by J.M. Porup

Author:J.M. Porup [Porup, J.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter Fourteen

Linda led Shade from the landing pad up the slope of the great crater into the city itself. Before, he had seen only the tunnels beneath the ruins. Now he stared around in wonder.

They walked through a maze of ancient streets. A thick layer of dust covered everything, which puffed up in clouds with each step as they trudged along. Rusted shapes with what may have once been wheels littered the thoroughfares. In some, ancient skeletons still sat, preserved, no doubt, by the radiation. The skyscrapers bent away from the crater, once molten-glass frozen in mid-air.

Extraordinary, Shade thought. For so much to survive for so long, these monuments to man’s folly. A shame the Collective had not arisen in time to prevent this holocaust. True utopia could have been achieved without paying such a high price—most of humanity wiped out, the planet poisoned for billions of years by radioactive fallout.

He wondered why the Collective had never cleaned up the radiation. If the Collective was able to transmute elements to create the lead Crust, why were they not able to transmute the radioactive elements into something innocuous?

“They are,” Linda said quietly.

Shade flushed. He was beginning to feel awkward. Everyone could hear his thoughts, but he could hear no one else’s.

How do you mean?

Linda squeezed his hand. “The Collective wants to live in fear. They want to live in the air, they want to build a crust between themselves and the real world.”

I—I don’t understand.

She sighed. “I don’t either. But such is the way of the world.”

They came to a large circular building without a roof. One side, unprotected by the skyscrapers, had collapsed from the ancient explosion. The other half—really more like two-thirds—remained standing, largely intact.

Shade gazed up at the building. What is this place?

“The ancients called it a stadium.” She tugged on his sleeve. “Come.”

They stepped across ancient chunks of broken concrete and entered the great oval. Far above them, the burning globe atop the golden spire illuminated the city. In the middle of the stadium, a groundscraper plummetted to the ground. Shade approached it, caressed the leaden surface. Amazing to think that fellow nodes worked, ate and slept on the other side, he mused. They have no idea what’s going on down here.

A sound rang out behind him, and he turned. The most beautiful sound he had ever heard, even more beautiful than before.

The woman-singer-monster Maude came into view, her mouth open, arms outstretched at her sides, singing as she approached, and Shade thought his heart would break. He clutched his chest. He was far too young for a heart attack. What could it mean?

Maude drew nearer. She looked Shade in the eye as she sang, and it seemed to him that she was singing for him and him alone. A cool breeze pricked his tongue. He shut his jaw.

Linda rested her chin on his shoulder. “Now do you understand?” she whispered. “Why I would rather die than leave here?”

He put his finger to his lips. Sshh!

Maude halted in front of Shade.

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