The Outcasts
“If you want a map, you’re going to have to talk to Umétican. And get a place to sleep before 10 o’clock.”
“Thank you.”
Eli put his hands in his pocket and started out of the shop towards the colorful center of the city. The shops were lit by neon signs, but their windows were dark and filled with merchandise. Bars over bars on the inside of the glass blocked the doors and windows from the outside world. Papers flew across the street and over the sidewalk, skidding over the concrete leaving greasy lines of butter and oil. Colorful billboards lit the fork in the road illuminating the orange sky to seem like daytime. Humanoid creatures bustled past; vehicles honked and zoomed with little whizzes past archaic stoplights. A human girl was leaned against the steel wall of a building and she followed Eli as he passed through the smoke of a cigarette. He shoved his hands farther into his pockets and continued walking.
The street’s fork caved in upon itself leaving a boat-shaped island in the middle of two streets. The main road continued forward making another curve around a large steel building lost in the sky. Eli pulled his jacket closer to him against the non-existent cold and pushed forward through the stream of creatures to the door of the building. A man pulled a dollar out of his cell-phone as he passed and handed it to a coffee vendor from the window of the shop. The smell of coffee beans filled the air but stopped one Eli entered the skyscraper.
Metal detectors were the first obstacle, but they didn’t go off. Eli breathed a sigh of relief. The elevator was the second as the map next to it was impossible to decipher. After staring at it for several minutes, he managed to find the name he was looking for and pressed the button. The third came when he found the door was locked. He knocked but no one answered.
“Umétican leaves at six,” a maroon voice said behind him. “What do you need?”
“A map, please,” Eli said hoarsely facing a dark skinned woman who has spoken to him. Her hair was pulled back tightly and she was dressed in old-fashioned business suit with pointed high-heeled shoes. She smiled warmly.
“Having trouble finding things?”
Eli wasn’t sure whether he should answer or not. She stood there anticipating something before pulling out a key and inserting it into the lock. The door swung open.
“Wait here,” she said closing the door behind her. Eli was left in the hall. He looked around at the black metal doors with gold plaques. “Visitor Services” the one in front of him read. He traced the letters and savored the harsh edge against his skin. It felt cold and yet the pressed edge against his skin made his fingers warm. The door flung open and he jumped back breathing to calm his hammering heart.
“Here you go,” the woman said with a large smile handing him a folded pamphlet. “You’d better get a room quick or the hotel will close and you’ll spend the night avoiding the Resettlement Program.” She laughed.
“Um, thank you.”
“Don’t mention it, honey.”
Eli smiled back at her and rushed to the elevator pressing the button in wicked speed and then pressing a random floor once he was inside just to get the doors to close. Humans were starting to scare him. It was only three weeks since he escaped the lab and he figured out why they kept him where he was. He thought it was confinement. He found out it was protection.
He pinched his nose bridge lightly. What he had taken as lies ended up being the truth. He was there for his own good. Humans were destined to die just like him. So what if he was made just to prolong their lives? At least he would get out of the hellhole they called society and live a nicer life.
The doors to the elevator stopped at the fifth floor and opened to a deserted dark hallway. After a moment’s hesitation, Eli got out and sat on the floor facing the elevator. He checked his watch; there wasn’t enough time to find a hotel. He laid out the map in front of him and pulled a flashlight out of his pocket. With a click of a button the paper was flooded with light. Particularly curved lines intersected streets, which also curved around islands of buildings and districts. A purple line meant something completely different from the light purple wash in the upper right corner of the paper. He scanned the legend: main streets, businesses, housing, immigrants, rivers, subways, highways, tubes all came up as different colors and symbols on the map. His head hurt.
The elevator doors opened giving Eli a second’s notice to shut off the flashlight, but not enough time to scramble out of the way. An androgynous looking robot looked down at him on the floor and the map before crouching down to his level.
“Hello,” it’s tenor voice echoes slightly like a soft microphone. “What are you doing here?”
“J-just looking for a place to stay.”
“Oh, all right then.” The robot stood up. “Technically you are not allowed, but since I do not see the harm in letting one person sleep here, you can follow me. It seems you are caught in the system.”
“I suppose so.”
The robot smiled. “Yes you are. This way.”
It led Eli down the hall towards a small glass door with a silver plaque reading: “Robot Ambassador.” The door opened with a little creak into a small office with a desk and two chairs. The robot closed the door after Eli and locked it.
“I often sleep here,” it said. “They will not bother us.”
“Thank you,” Eli said taking a seat in a ripped leather chair by the door. “I’m called Eli.”
“Oh, yes, names,” the robot smiled. “I forget it is a common formality with humans. I am called Exec.”
“Pleased to meet you, Exec,” Eli said. Then after a short pause, “Begging your pardon, but I am not human,” he added with an odd sense that it was necessary.
Exec narrowed his eyes and looked Eli up and down. “You look human. How can you not be human?”
“I’m a clone,” Eli said.
“Oh yes,” Exec said with a smile. “You are of another outcast race like me. Your kind is bred for spare human parts just like we fight their wars. It seems to me, friend, that we are meant to meet.”
It was Eli’s turn to smile. “I think that’s a pleasant way of looking at things.”
“Pleasantry is how I get through my days and nights.”
Eli bid his companion good night and curled up as comfortably in the chair as he could. The leather creaked with even the slightest movement and the arm of the chair dug into his legs and back, but Eli had never slept better nor felt as warm and comfortable in the drafty office as he ever had in his life.
No Comments
No comments yet.
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
