Runaway World

The Fugitive

     After a while, Jasmine entered the cockpit to replace James and Andrew. The autopilot was perfectly capable of driving the rover through the night over unmapped terrain, having a complete set of pre-programmed procedures to guide it through any unexpected situation it might encounter, but Andrew felt happier having a member of his family actually there, keeping an eye on things. Just in case. It meant that it wasn't possible for the entire family to be in the recreation room at once while the rover was moving, but the rest of the family was willing to indulge him in this, just for his peace of mind.

     When Andrew and James walked in, David and Susan were sprawled on either end of the sofa, sharing a bag of snacks while they watched an old movie on the monitor screen on the wall opposite them. Andrew groaned inwardly when he recognised it. They lived in a dangerous world now in which a knowledge of science was essential for survival. That had been true when the movie had been made, twenty years before, and yet the movie contained some atrocious science.

     Susan heard his groan and looked round at him. "Now don't start again," she warned. "It's got a good story. I loved this movie when I was a little girl."

     David looked round at him as well. "Don't you like it, Dad?" he asked.

    "Is this the one where the guy has to cross a lake of liquid nitrogen," said Andrew as he went across to one of the room's armchairs. "Using floating slabs of nitrogen ice as stepping stones?"

     David looked around with a guilty smile. "I like it!" he protested. "It's good."

     "Nobody making the movie knew that nitrogen ice sinks in liquid nitrogen?"

     "The priority back then was to keep people entertained, not to educate them," said Susan. "Remember how things were back then. The fall of New Richmond and New Beijing was still fresh on everyone's mind. Everyone was afraid that New London would suffer the same fate, that the last bastion of humanity would be extinguished. Even if we survived, the entire human race was now trapped in a single underground city. It was vital to keep the population entertained, to keep them from lapsing into cabin fever. A massive, collective madness that would have destroyed everything."

     Andrew nodded, knowing the truth of it. The Governing Council had encouraged the making of music, movies and television series, with rewards of extra food rations and other luxuries for anyone who created a work of art, no matter how bad the quality. What had mattered was that fifty thousand trapped human beings always had something new to talk about, to take their minds off the fact that freedom, the ability to leave the city, was still years away.

     "I know that," said Andrew. "And you'll have noticed there are dozens and dozens of movies on the same theme. People forced, for one reason or another, to go out onto the surface where everyone dies horribly except for one person who makes it back alive to the warmth and safety of the city."

     Susan chuckled. "Propaganda about as subtle as a mallet to the head," she agreed. "The surface is dangerous. Stay in the city, where it's safe."

   "You can do that while being scientifically accurate. God knows there're enough real dangers out here."

     "Well, it is educational," said Susan. "When I was in school, my physics teacher told us to watch the movie and then write an essay on all the scientific inaccuracies it contained."

       "It's a great movie!" David protested. "There's loads of action in it. Lots of explosions."

     "And lots of people talking to each other, out on the surface, without helmets on."