A Crack in the Sky (22 page)

“You saw Marilyn in a
dream?”

Marilyn climbed onto Eli’s shoulder.
Can there be any doubt his brain is fevered?

For a moment the old man didn’t respond. He seemed to recognize the incredulous tone in Eli’s voice, because finally he said, “I’ve lived in the wasteland a long time. The desert has a way of enhancing one’s perceptions. It expands the senses and sharpens the mind.”

Eli grunted. “Some would say it
twists
the mind.”

The Outsider smiled almost imperceptibly. “As you wish.”

Eli noticed something on the floor near the old man’s feet. It was the
Alice
book. In all the confusion it must have slipped out of his pocket. The Outsider saw it too. He reached down and picked it up.

“What have we here?”

“Give that back!” Eli demanded. “It’s mine!”

“Is it, indeed? Then you might want to be more careful with it. They aren’t making any more of these, you know.” He examined the cover. “So, tell me, what do you think of Lewis Carroll?”

Eli only glared.

“Since I was a boy, I’ve been captivated by Alice’s story. The genius is in the author’s inventiveness with logic and facility with the absurd. You can read it again and again and each time find something new and intriguing.” He ran his finger tenderly along the binding, and as he did so a realization dawned on Eli.

“The Outsider I saw under the streets,” he said. “It was you, wasn’t it?”

He nodded.

Eli studied him with renewed curiosity. How could such a decrepit old desert rat make his way so easily in and out of the dome’s support systems? The ragged figure took a step toward him. He narrowed his eyes at Eli and recited:

As he spoke, he inched forward. Now he was so close that Eli could make out the individual wrinkles on his scarred face. If there was ever any question whether he was crazy, this
speech should have been Eli’s proof. Yet there was something in his eyes that kept him from backing away.

“The world is overheated,” the old man said, handing the book back to him. “The polar ice caps have long since melted away. The oceans have risen and acidified. All over the planet, entire ecosystems have already collapsed: animals, plants, fish, birds—countless species, gone forever. Many others are greatly reduced in number and barely surviving, whether through adaptation or migration in search of cooler temperatures. And people are no exception. Pestilence and dwindling resources have already reduced our numbers too and continue to cut the average human life span shorter. There used to be a lot more old people, but sickness and hardship take most of us earlier than they once did. It’s evolution on steroids, survival of the fittest. In or outside the domes, those without youth, strength, and cunning rarely last long in this harsh new landscape. Those few of us old-timers who survive do so only with the aid of exceptional resourcefulness and extraordinary luck—not to mention special technology.” He gestured toward his respirator. “I don’t say this to frighten you, Eli. It’s just the new reality. Human life as we’ve known it is drawing to a rapid close. And, despite what you’ve been told, it’s still heating up out there. The old world is gone, and only the insects rejoice. Bugs are the only winners in the Great Warming.”

Eli hesitated to speak. He didn’t really believe what he was hearing, but he wasn’t sure either. “Even if what you say is true, we must be able to reverse it somehow. There has to be something we can do.”

The Outsider shook his head. “It’s too late for that. We’re
at the end of a process many years in the making, triggered back when the massive overuse of oil, coal, and natural gas for energy first began to trap the sun’s heat in the atmosphere. Mankind has been preparing the groundwork for its own undoing for a long time.”

“And nobody knew?”

“Oh, many knew. Scientists across the globe were long ago in agreement about what was happening and spent years raising the alarm. Unfortunately those with the ability to do something about it on a large scale simply chose not to.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Eli said. “Why would anyone choose not to?”

The old man shrugged. “All the power in too few hands. Few incentives for those at the top to act against their own short-term interests. It was easier to deny the evidence in favor of assuming it was mere science fiction, a case of Henny Penny calling out that the sky was falling. Believing meant making changes. Why risk ruining a good thing when there was wealth and power to cling to? And make no mistake, Eli, those at the top wielded mighty power indeed. They held even the ability to convince massive numbers of people that the science itself was simply wrong. And it’s no surprise they were able to persuade the general public of this. Everyday people
wanted
the science to be wrong. Who could blame them? Who wants to believe that worldwide calamity is just around the corner?”

He took another drag through his respirator. Eli could sense that even Marilyn was waiting anxiously for him to continue.

“But soon the impact of accelerating climate change grew too obvious to explain away. Rapid disintegration of glaciers, diminishing shorelines, parched farmland. Increasingly violent weather brought frequent tornadoes and record flooding to major cities all over the world. Island nations started to disappear under water. Diseases like malaria were spreading. Even the timing of the seasons had changed. Soon the evidence of a heating planet became so undeniable that the company had to find another way to conceal the truth. So they came up with a new strategy: the domes.”

“Wait,” said Eli. “So you’re saying the company leadership—my
family
—knows all this stuff but is
hiding
it? That’s outrageous! If it weren’t for Grandfather, we’d all be dead!”

The old man nodded. “That’s true.”

“So how can you accuse my family of wanting to deceive everyone? It’s ridiculous!”

“Is it?” The Outsider’s eyebrow was raised, but then his voice went softer. “For what it’s worth, your family elders weren’t the only ones who inadvertently helped along the warming process—the same process that triggered the Great Sickness in the first place, before your Grandfather’s leadership and luck prevented it from wiping us out of existence. In some ways the Papadopouloses were no worse than anyone else in earlier days who stood by and didn’t act. But the fact is, from its first years running the country, InfiniCorp fanned the flames of an irresponsible and unsustainable lifestyle. Eventually the damage to the earth’s ability to cool itself became irreversible. Mother Nature’s vengeance was like an oncoming steamroller nobody could stop. In time the senior leadership
of InfiniCorp came to recognize the world’s fate. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, Eli, but they understood long ago that the end is coming.”

“No, that’s a lie!”

“In some ways, building the domes was an act of mercy. It provided a way to fend off despair, to prolong the old, comforting ways and delay facing reality for a few decades. And why not? Management had the power to pull it off, and they saw no better alternative. By isolating the employees in cocoons of illusion, they can at least keep their consumer base for a while, the powerful can stay in control, and the money and good times can keep rolling—until the resources at last run dry or the storms knock the domes out of commission. Either way, they’ve always known it’s only a matter of time before the party comes to its inevitable, blistering end.”

“You’re wrong!” Eli shouted. “Your brain is fried! My family cares about the employees!”

“Eli,” he said, his voice steady and calm, “Grandfather is scared. Your aunts and uncles and parents too. They know what’s coming. The company is already losing control. In your heart you know what I’m saying is true.”

“How would you know any of this? You don’t have any idea what my family was thinking. Why would a Fogger like you know anything about the inner workings of the company?”

“Because,” he said, “I was there. Long ago I was part of it, a senior leader at the very elbow of your grandfather. Oh yes, we were quite close. Childhood friends, in fact. Almost like brothers. You find this hard to believe? Well, I can’t say I blame you. These days you’d be hard-pressed to find evidence. Any
record of me or my service has long since been wiped from the archives.”

Eli’s head was spinning. On his shoulder Marilyn was getting even more agitated. He felt her claws digging into him.

Try the door again, Eli. If he was right about the reboot, maybe it’s over by now and we can get out of here
.

Eli started backing away again. What he was hearing couldn’t be true, and yet he remembered what Grandfather had hinted at, that there really might be cases in which the company felt that hiding the truth was in the best interest of the people. But surely not with something so gigantic as
this—
the end of the world! Besides, he’d also said the earth was cooling, not warming, and Grandfather would never lie to him. Eli made a decision. He was going to find out the truth, no matter what it was. The moment he got back home, he would ping Grandfather. He wasn’t supposed to interrupt him at work but he felt sure Grandfather would take his transmit. And then Eli would tell him everything, no matter the consequences. Grandfather would clear it all up. In the meantime Eli wasn’t about to accept what some brain-addled Outsider said about his family.

He refused to believe it.

“I made a mistake coming here,” he said, still backing off. “Now I want you to keep away from me. I don’t want to hear from you people ever again.”

“You can deny us, but not forever. It won’t be long before you’ll be with us once and for all.”

At the door now, Eli grabbed the handle and pulled. This time it opened without undue effort. A sudden gust of warm air blew into the room, bringing some relief from the frigid air.
Eli and Marilyn gazed out at the dome ceiling. The bright, swirling light they’d climbed through only minutes earlier was gone. Now there was only the glow of the digital moon and a sky full of beautiful stars. The dome was in nighttime mode. Whatever the issues were, InfiniCorp had finally taken care of them.

Marilyn chirped with relief as Eli ducked through the door and onto the ledge. Just when he started toward the ladder, though, something seized his wrist. It was cold and hard, and it held tight. He spun around.

“Join us!”
the old man hissed. “Help us defy the authority whose negligence helped send all humanity down the path to extinction!”

Eli tried to struggle but the robotic grip was too strong. “If you’re asking me to work against my own family, to be your mole inside the organization, I won’t do it! Never! If you really could see the future, you would already know that! I’m a Papadopoulos!”

“Yes, but you’re a special case. You always have been, Eli, and you’ve always known it. It’s why you’ve never been able to follow the road your family laid out for you.”

Eli’s pulse was racing. He remembered the day of the blast and the damage the bomb had done to the air filter. He could still picture the dead girl in the mud. He would never be a part of that. This man, if you could even call him that anymore, was out of his mind. Eli flailed his legs and his free arm, trying his best to punch or kick the Outsider so he’d let go. He was concentrating so much on escaping, though, that he lost track of where he was on the ledge.

Just as Marilyn was getting ready to pounce again, Eli lost his balance and slipped.

Marilyn shrieked.
Eli, look out!

But it was too late. He tumbled over the edge. The next thing he knew, he was dangling in the air hundreds of feet over the city of Providence. The
Alice
book slipped from his pocket, and he saw it tumble down, down, toward the rooftops until it was too small to see. The Outsider still had him by the wrist, but he was gritting his teeth with the effort of holding on. There was no telling how long he would last. Eli’s legs kicked uselessly among the pixels.

Help me! Marilyn!

Marilyn peered down at him in horror. Beside her the old man grunted and cursed, all his concentration focused on keeping hold of Eli. But Marilyn could only watch. She screeched, jerking her head back and forth as she tried to think of what to do.

I can’t, Eli! I’m too small! Don’t let go!

Eli had no intention of letting go if he could help it, but even as adrenaline flooded through him, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking how pathetic his life was. After everything he’d been worrying about—wasting his life away in a low-level job assignment, being kidnapped and dragged away by Foggers, even facing down the end of the world—how ironic that he would end up falling to his death after slipping on a ledge. He couldn’t even scream, because there was still a part of him that cared if people on the ground looked up and noticed him dangling in the night sky.

But soon the Outsider’s efforts paid off. With surprising
strength he managed to lift Eli back toward him, close enough that Eli was able to grab the iron grating himself. Seconds later he landed in a heap on the ledge. Even then the robotic hand still didn’t let up. It grabbed Eli by the collar and yanked him to his feet.

“I know what you feel when you close your eyes,” he said, breathing into Eli’s face now. “I know the emptiness, the awareness of change coming. But you should know that all hope is not yet lost. Your broken animal friend wasn’t the only one I saw in the dream prophecy. There was another, an indistinct shadow of a child, a powerful desert thief whose disciples would follow him anywhere.”

Over his shoulder Eli could see Marilyn creeping up behind him.
I can jump him again, Eli! I can scratch his eyes out! What do you want me to do?

No!
Eli said silently.
Wait!

“This shadowy figure I saw,” the old man continued, “held the final fate of humanity in his hands. Save or destroy. His choice would determine our destiny. For years I’ve been watching for him, el Guía, the great leader who will launch the final revolution. And now at last I’ve found him.” His face came even closer. “It’s
you
, Eli. Guiding the battle march at the end of the world is your special destiny.”