The Shutting Out

Poe has the key. Find her, Orion. It’s our only hope.

Electra’s pen slipped on the page as the sound of boots came from below, hundreds of boots. She looked at the note in her hands and knew what she had to do. She uncapped a bottle of ink and poured it across the page where it obscured the words and settled in a black pool.

Somewhere else, a door crashed open as the footsteps thundered closer. Electra lifted her hands and peeled back the gloves of her silverskin suit, looking at her own pale skin. She reached up to unfasten her mask, lifting it off her face and letting her auburn hair fall down her back in waves. Her face settled into calm, even as it drained of color. She gasped in space that held no air. “Save them,” she whispered as she fell to the fell to the ground.

The door of the bedroom exploded as the War-Bots flooded in, marching rhythmically to surround Electra’s body where it lay fallen in a tangle of silver limbs, white flesh and gold hair. A laser beam scanned over the length of her.

“Elimination complete.”

___________

Poe raced down the gleaming corridor, the lighter sound of her human footsteps rising over the dull marching of the Bots that followed behind. The silverskin that covered her from head to toe emphasized the agile lines of her body. She heard her own breath pounding inside her mask. Taking a sharp left down an alley, she saw more Bots turn in ahead of her and jumped to catch a light tube overhead, swinging herself up onto it she ran along the length of it and leapt to the rooftop of a nearby tenement building. Hiding behind the chimney as it belched smoke, she crouched low and cradled the package in her arms. Across from her in the shadows a young boy peered at her from behind his mask. She winked at him and lifted a finger to her lips, shhh.

The Search Bots entered onto the roof, scanning the area. The boy looked at them and back at Poe. “She’s over here,” he called flatly, standing to point out her hiding spot.

Poe glared at him from her hiding place as she was surrounded. She popped up casually, “Hey fellas, I reckon you missed me?”

They approached her at laser point. “Drop it.”

“Oh, come on now, let’s talk this through.”

“Drop it.”

“Do you even know what this is? Did they program you with that one?” She uncurled her arms to reveal a book, thin and worn, the title obscured by dirt and time. A red laser beam hit her shoulder and she dropped the book with a howl, “Fuck! Really? Was that necessary?” A burn blistered her skin through the tear in her bodysuit.

“H-23338, You are under arrest for thievery, a violation of the mandates of our Democratic Society of Equality. If you resist arrest, you will be subject to the use of restraining force. Do you understand?”

She rolled her eyes and held out her arms for a pair of thin black handcuffs. “Let’s get on with it then.”

___________

Poe watched out the windows of the car at the City rolled past outside in shades of black, and gray, and metal. The streets were wide and smooth, the buildings rose gleaming and tall to the milk-white sky. There was no color anywhere, no grass or trees or flowers. Not that Poe would have recognized them if there were. She’d been born after the Shutting Out, when everyone was moved into the City for their own protection. It was all she had ever known. Several hover crafts passed over head as the car pulled to a stop outside the Mall.

Poe’s door opened automatically as her escort of four Search-Bots led her towards the waiting Court. The Mall was filled with Bots and people, almost indistinguishable from one another in a see of silver and metal. They past a line of humans waiting for at a vaccination station. Nearby, people refilled their oxygen packs.

A boxing match filled the air with yells from humans and droids. Poe stopped to watch as a man delivered the final blow to his opponent. He stood over the collapsed pile of twisted metal and wires with both fists raised in the air. He fought in a pair of shorts and a mask, his bare skin exposed to the air, muscles gleaming with sweat. His silver hair hung loose and damp. As the crowd cheered, he was passed a vial of liquid gold winnings. He straddled his air-bike that waited nearby and waved to his audience.

Poe looked at her keepers as they pressed their way through the throng. She looked back at the Champion as he revved his bike. With a quick twist of her arms she sprang away from her unsuspecting captors and ducked into the pressing crowd. She twisted and fought her way towards him. A heat laser caught her in the back of the neck and she cried out in pain as her hood fell away.

The Boxer heard her and turned to watch as she broke from the crush of silver bodies. She fell forward on her knees beside the bike. Her long red hair falling like flames around her face.

“Please,” she gasped. “Help me.” He frowned, searching her eyes through their masks and glancing up to see the police closing in.

“Let’s go,” he said and hauled onto the back of the bike. With a kick of his boot the bike rose straight into the air and raced away from the commotion below.

_____

“Where are we going?” Poe cried as the wind rushed past and stole her words. There was no answer as the bike sped over the gray blur below them. The black tar of the streets widened and spilled until it covered the entire surface of the earth. And Poe realized with a sinking sensation that they were heading for The Edge. She’s never been there before but everyone knew about it, the Edge was the furthest perimeter of the City. It was a no-man’s land of desolate waste and unsanctioned activity. It stretched for miles and miles of rolling black tar that had no end, at least none that anyone had ever found.

The bike slowed and lost altitude as a gleaming black dwelling rose in front of them like a Mountain. It had no windows and the single door slid open at their approach, shutting seamlessly behind them as they entered.

As the engine stilled, a thick silence fell. Poe stayed where she was, staring at the broad back in front of her, chewing her lip nervously. “Thanks,” she offered in a small voice. Her rescuer grunted and climbed off, tearing off his mask and casting it to the side.

“You can take it off it you want to,” he said gruffly.

Poe gaped, “It’s oxygenated in here?” She carefully slipped her mask off and breathed slowly, feeling the air fill her lungs. “Holy shit!” She slipped off the bike and ran to catch up with him as he disappeared down the hall. “Wait! Wait! Stop!” He stopped suddenly and she slammed into him. With perfect reflexes he spun to catch her before she fell, grabbing her shoulders. She gasped as he caught her burn.

He steadied her and let go, looking at the nasty welt. “I have something that’ll help with that.”

“Of course you do,” Poe shoved her hair back out of her face, “Who are you anyways?”

“Orion.” As he walked into cavernous main room of the house, the lights rose until the entire space was dimly lit.

Poe had never seen anything like it in her life. The clean gleaming obsidian surfaces, the steam rising off the hot black water of a stone bath, an expansive bed that shone with silk sheets the color of the night sky. She laughed out loud, “Okay. Wow. This is ridiculous.”

Orion came back over holding a small jar, “This will help.” He lifted her arm tore the rest of her sleeve clean off to expose her burn. He smoothed some cream over it with his thumb. Poe sucked in a breath and he frowned, “It shouldn’t sting.”

“No, I… your skin. My skin.” She blushed hotly and looked down. “I’ve just never felt that before. His hand stilled on her arm. He searched her face.

She spoke nervously, trying to fill the space, “Sorry. It’s silly. I was, ya know, born after. The Shutting Out. So that’s all. No big deal. Skin.” He studied her as he put the cap back on. “Oh,” she stopped him, “Could you do the one back here too?” She lifted the heavy weight of her hair and twisted it over her shoulder, bending her head to expose the burn at the back of her neck.

“Why were you arrested?” He asked as he applied the cream.

“Oh, trees,” she said with a little shrug.

“Trees?”

“Yeah, trees. Sort of. I stole a book, this book Walden. It’s about—“

“I know it,”

“You do? From before? Well, I have never read it but I had this teacher who used to tell me lines from it when there was no one else to hear. And… I had to read it for myself.”

Orion tugged gently at a thin gold chain just above her burn, “What’s this?”

“That? Uh, it’s just a locket. My mom gave it to me. I think.” She tugged it until she found the gold heart with her fingers.

He read the word, “Poetry.”

“Yeah, that’s me,” she smiled. “That’s what she named me. I never met her.” Poe flipped the locket open and emptied it into her hands. “That’s a picture of her. And then she put this little charm in here too.”

Orion took the picture from her, “Poetry.” He said her name again.

“Yeah, haha, that’s… I know it’s sort of a weird—“

“Poetry. You’re Poetry. This is the key. It’s been here all this time. Oh my god.”

“Are you okay?”

“This isn’t a charm. It’s a key. This is a key! You had it. You had it this whole time.”

“I don’t really understand at all.”

“Come with me,” he held out his hand and she stared at it for a long moment before placing her own bare hand in his. He pulled her down a spiraling staircase deeper and deeper into the earth. A long tunnel opened up at the bottom and they ran along it. “Your mom was part of the resistance working on the inside. We thought she was the safest one to have the key, but when she was found out we all assumed.”

They reached the end of the tunnel where a Gold Door shone in the low light. Orion pulled Poe forward, the key in her hand. She hesitated, “Where does this go?”

“Outside the City. The Beyond.”

“But it isn’t safe.”

“Isn’t safe?

“Well, yes isn’t that why The Shutting Out happened? It wasn’t safe. People were dying out there.”

“This says the girl searching for Thoreau.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

He reached out to hold her face, his eyes burning into her, “We need the tonic of wildness, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough…” He kissed her then, hard and unyielding and it flooded from her lips all through her.

When he pulled back, she bit her lip and shrugged, “Okay, well. It’s gotta be better than here.” She fitted in small gold key into the lock and turned it with a click. Then she put her hand on the door and pushed it open with a shove.

She looked behind her, “You ready?”

“Yes.”

Poetry held out her hand, “Let’s do that hand thing again.” He put his hand in hers and they stepped through to the other side.