NAAN (The Rabanians Book 1) (7 page)

“You better eat with me,” I said.

“He is completely drugged,” said Dug trying to explain my odd request.

“What is the Combining Network Project?” I suddenly asked. I don't know why I asked them. Clearly it was very important. I hadn’t had time to look into it deeply, but I was sure it could explain why we are here.

“Combining Network Project,” said Daio.

“Combining Network Project,” said Dug and I heard his voice getting stronger as he walked towards the bed.

“You know what it means?” asked Daio.

“Ahh…. Combining brains,” said Dug.

“Combining brains?” said Daio.

“Where did you see this?” asked Dug leaning in close.

“It was a note beside our cell in the network,” I said.

“I don't understand,” said Daio.

“It was written underneath our names in the prison database.”

“Combining brains?” wondered Daio looking at Dug. Dug went back and sat in a chair.

“They harvest anything they can from people who are given the death penalty. They use the parts for transplants and experiments. In some cases they take the brains and give them to the military. They have some sort of project.”

“What project?” asked Daio.

“They hook a bunch of brains together to build a large pool of parallel computing power.”

“What?”

“Parallel computing.”

“I know what parallel computing is, but how…”Daio trailed off.

“How do they keep the brains alive?” said Dug. “I guess they feed them somehow. They probably don't last long. It’s probably why they need replacements.”

“And this is legal?”

“No, but the law doesn’t apply in the case of information scramblers.”

“Why would they want our brains?” wondered Daio.

“Why wouldn't they? It’s the most perfect revenge I can think of. Hooking the brains of scramblers and outlaws together to create something that fights the scramblers that are still wandering free. It’s genius.”

I stood up and went to the table. I opened a box and sat down. “You better eat with me,” I said.

“What is the point in eating?” said Dug turning towards me.

I ate a few cubes then for no reason I started to laugh. 

“You are completely drugged,” said Dug looking at me.

I sighed, but a new wave of laughter attacked me. I looked down at the table and forced myself to stifle my laughter. I had to lean down close in order to see what was on the table.

“These are proteins and carbohydrates, and these are vitamins,” said Dug pointing to the cubes spread on the table.

“Why they don't make them in different colors?” I asked and lifted my head. I looked at Dug and then at Daio, across the room and started to laugh again. I couldn't help it. The question was already asked. Why don't they make them in different colors? But if what I had planned was really about to happen I needed to focus on how to prepare them for it and not ask irrelevant questions.

“It will happen in the morning,” I whispered. I don't know why I whispered. I tried to pull myself together and slow my racing heart.

Dug looked at me and then at Daio

“It will happen in the morning,” I said again, louder this time.

“What will happen?” asked Daio.

“The disposal,” I said.

“Disposal of what?”

“Of the garbage,” I said.

“Yes, of course,” said Dug. I turned towards him and he smiled at me. 

My head started to spin. I didn’t know the drugs they gave me just before returning me to the cell were starting to work or if it was something else. 

"You’ll see in the morning," I said, then stood up and walked to the ladder on the wall.

"You can sleep in my bed," said Daio behind me.

"No, you better be prepared," I said and climbed the bars. He rushed to stand behind me in case I fell. I rolled onto the bed, closed my swollen eyes, and a deep sense of calm came over me. Sleep was not far behind.

The sound of hydraulic engines woke me up. I sat up immediately. Hydraulic engines. That meant the hovercraft had already arrived. I hadn’t heard it coming. I jumped from my bed and landed on the floor, barefoot, Daio had just opened his eyes, but closed them again quickly. My thoughts ran through yesterday’s events: the Flyeyes, the Clinic, the monitor, and the layout of the cells. Everything was real.  It wasn’t a dream.

The engines sounded again.

“Get up,” I screamed. 

Daio opened his eyes in panic. I turned to Dug and he gazed at me, his forehead wrinkled. 

“What is going on?” he asked.

I shifted my face towards the wall and said, “They are taking out the trash.”

“Sosi,” called Daio. I turned towards him. “What's going on?”

“It’s time,” I said hesitantly and looked to the ceiling. I should have told them to get ready but I hadn’t been sure it was really going to happen.

Suddenly an echoing, pounding shook the cell. This was followed by a few smaller bangs close by. I was turning back to Daio when we were suddenly lifted upwards. I lost my balance. I heard pipes ripping then we were swinging in the air.

We were thrown all over the cell. The floor started to vibrate and the wall where Daio’s bed was lifted a bit. Light, from outside filtered through the small slot.  

“What's happening?” shouted Dug trying to hold on to something.

The slot closed with a bang, and suddenly it was dark and quiet.

“What is going on?” asked Daio holding onto the ladder on the wall. As if to answer all the questions, the wall moved again, this time faster until it completely detached from the floor. 

The cell started to rotate. The wall, hinged to the ceiling, gradually began to open until we were completely hanging in air.

“Jump,” I shouted and jumped into the dark hole that appeared beneath us. I fell onto a big pile of garbage. The landing was painful, but it was nothing compared to the smell that assaulted my senses.

Barefoot I slid to the bottom of the pile. I started to feel my way along until I hit a metal wall. I heard Dug shouting as he fell and a cry after he hit the garbage pile.

“Slide down,” I yelled to him.

I heard another fall, a quiet one. Probably Daio. 

“I think I broke something,” I heard Dug crying.

“Slide down,” I yelled again.

The doors above us started to close, and the little light we had gradually faded until darkness completely surrounded us.

“Daio, Dug,” I called when the sound of the closing doors stopped. I heard sliding noises, and Dug groaning. I could tell he was getting closer to me from the noises he made.

“Dug,” I called to him.

“I am here.”

“Can you see me?” I asked and went closer to him.

"We are inside the damn garbage hovercraft," he said and leaned on me. "How the hell did this happen?"

“Bad fall?” I asked.  It wasn’t the time for long explanations.

“I’m barefoot,” he said angrily.

“Yes, me too.”

“I think I broke something.”

“I found a ladder!” I heard Daio shouting.

“Daio, where are you,” I shouted.

“Walk along the wall,” he shouted back.

I held Dug’s hand and pulled him towards the wall.

“Daio’s found a ladder, let's go…”

“I heard him,” he cut me off, “I can’t breathe.”

“We need to get out of here,” I said.

He leaned his hand on the wall and we started to move.

The hovercraft lifted off. Every change in its course or velocity shook us ferociously. We fell several times and I had to help Dug back to his feet. The smell was so bad it became a struggle to draw breath.

“Daio,” I shouted just to get a feeling for how close we were.

“Here,” he called back. 

The hovercraft changed course and the pile of garbage shifted towards us, pinning us against the wall. I helped Dug climb above it.

“I can’t make it,” he said desperately.

“Just a few more steps and we are there,” I said to him.

“Sosi,” I suddenly heard Daio.

“We’re here,” I called back.

A hand touched me from above.

“Over here,” he said.

I looked up but I couldn't see him.

“Here,” he said and put my hand on the ladder.  “Climb.”

“Dug is hurt,” I said.

“I’ll get him. Climb!”

I pulled myself up the ladder. The hovercraft changed course again and I found myself hanging from the ladder by my hands with my feet dangling in space. After a few seconds I felt as if all my
strength
was gone. The hovercraft stabilized and I locked my legs on the ladder and hugged the bar in front of me. I couldn’t move. 

“Climb!” shouted Daio from below. I looked down and barely saw them, close together, on the ladder rungs. The door above me started to open and fresh air rushed in. I took a deep breath and scrambled up the ladder. I could hear the hydraulic engines working. When my head cleared the lip I could see the hovercraft arm moving. Its free end disappeared from my sight and I heard pounding noises. A few seconds later the arm moved again and another cell was hanging from its end.

“Another dump,” I yelled as the cell stopped above the opening. It slowly rotated and a flood of garbage cascaded into the chamber.

“Jump on it,” shouted Daio from below.  “Jump!”

The cell was so close to me that even a small shift and it would smash me like a little bug. I reached out my hands and jumped towards the horizontal bars along the cell walls. I couldn't see what was happening with Daio and Dug.  A few seconds later I saw Dug hanging next to me, and then Daio landed squarely on top of me. I almost fell.  The three of us hung onto the bars of the steel cell as it swung back and forth on its way to the ground.

As it dangled lower Daio jumped and I followed.  Dug waited a bit longer and jumped onto his uninjured leg. We grabbed his hands and pulled him away from the cell as it touched the ground.

We lay on the ground breathing heavily for few moments.

Daio leaned over me. “Okay,” he said to himself and disappeared from my line of sight. I turned my head and looked at him. He lay beside me and I could see his chest heaving up and down. 

“Can someone explain to me what exactly just happened?” said Dug and groaned.

Daio turned his head towards me and caught my eye.

“They took out the trash,” he said and started to laugh. He was still breathing hard, and his laugh turned into cough.

“What?” asked Dug.

Daio sat up and looked around. He crawled to the steel cell next to us, and leaned against it. 

“How did you do it?”

“I switched…” I said and took a big breath, “…the cells' addresses.”

“The addresses…” said Dug. He tried to add something else, but the noise of hovercraft taking drowned him out. “You changed the addresses?” he said when it was gone.

“I didn't know if it would work. The addresses were in the terminal, but I wasn't sure the hovercraft used that data.”  I took a deep breath.

A few Flyeyes whirred past not far from us, but it was too soon for us to be in danger.

“This is an airport,” said Daio.

I sat up and looked around. A few hovercrafts were lined up in front of us. Behind them a field stretched as far as I could see. Massive shuttles were taking off and landing. The closest one was bathed in spotlights and a huge crane was loading large containers into the shuttle’s cargo bays. Long conveyors were trundling packages into the shuttle through three openings.  We could hear people shouting and engines noises coming from the site.

Daio stood up and walked towards Dug. “How is your leg?”

“Hurt.”

“Where?”

“The ankle.”

“You think it's broken?”

“I can’t put any weight on it.”