Frightened Boy

Chapter Seven - Gravity

7. Gravity

I woke up to the smell of meat cooking over an open fire. It smelled savory until I peeked out my window and realized it was feral dog being roasted over a metal industrial bin.

I rose to my feet and approached the main room of the hut, but heard voices and froze. Whisper and Erika were speaking.

“So, tell me about Escher,” Erika asked.

“He’s the leader,” Whisper said. “That’s all you really need to know. He founded everything you see, and he’s in charge of the Strangers.”

Her voice sounded the least bit excited for the first time since I’d met her. I idly wondered what her role here was. Was she Escher’s girlfriend? I imagined sex with her would be like going at it with a bag of ice—all sharp edges and cold, forbidding places.

“Where did Escher come from, then?” Erika asked.

I wished Erika wouldn’t be so curious about him. I was, too, but it made me feel inferior. It made me think maybe God felt this way about airplanes and the Internet.

“I heard he used to be rich,” Grundel said, “and gave up his life of luxury for this. But Whisper has known him longer than just about anyone.”

Whisper only nodded her head. It was clear she wasn’t going to divulge the story.

“Well, if she won’t talk,” Grundel continued, “I only know—”

“Shut up, Grundel,” Whisper said calmly, almost kindly. He immediately quieted himself.

“He organized this … this society?” I asked from the doorway between the two rooms.

“Some of us used to have jobs like you, and all of us are rather disenchanted with the system. All of our homes and property fell to the Orange Zone and eventually went Red. Do you know how many people were left out in the cold, in the anarchy? Let me tell you a secret about anarchy,” Grundel said. “It’s only anarchy for about five minutes. Then, the biggest guy realizes he’s King—or at least until two guys band together and think they are. Escher? Well, he’s about 1,000 guys. Escher with a few thousand guys? That’s not just tribal warfare anymore—that's a fuckin' army,” Grundel said. Then he looked at Whisper and stopped talking.

“Escher is a force of his own nature,” a high-pitched, nasally voice said from a corner of Grundel’s makeshift home. I hadn’t noticed him before, of course.

“Sneak,” Grundel uttered sarcastically. “I hate you, Sam.”

I saw Erika’s green eyes refocus fuzzily as she realized that a fifth person had been in the room for some time.

“Nice to see you again, Clark,” Sam said, taking a step forward and shaking my hand. As soon as I touched him, his presence solidified in my mind.

“I’ve seen you before,” I said vacantly. “In Tasumec Tower.”

“Yeah, and I told you this was going to happen… and it did. You shouldn’t try to keep things from Escher.”

I nodded.

“Why don’t you take a walk with me, Clark?”

Erika began to protest, but Whisper laid a hand quietly on hers, letting her know she had no choice in the matter.

The morning light played strange tricks on the Orange Zone. Where it had seemed alive the night before with campfires and small gatherings on every corner, it was now completely empty and seemed deserted. It was easy to imagine how the police had a hard time tracking the Secret Society of Strangers; half the suburbs in America looked like this.