Look Up

DAY 1

6:30AM

Jacob steadied his hand and lifted the razor to his cheek, staring into the opaque glass as he did. He didn’t see the mirror anymore, though it technically was a mirror. Instead, his practiced eyes searched for the green lines that assessed his strokes, the red ones that assessed his pressure. He hadn’t had a nick or a scratch since it had been installed. Truthfully, he missed sticking the little bits of paper against the congealing blood, like his dad had taught him; but he supposed it was better this way. She’d certainly thought it was.

His hands kept up his shaving while his eyes watched the clock count down to the tube-departure, her words playing in his head. You’d better say goodbye, Jacob, because you’ll never hear from me again.

His left hand fumbled for his phone in his pocket and he looked down at it for a moment. No new messages. Just as well, he hated hypocrites.

He buried his face in a towel and dried it off, then twisted the tops of his unruly hair into manageable, almost stylish bunches. That would have to do, he was going to miss his car.

As he left the room, he knew to look down and shield his eyes from the harsh light of the tunnel; it was a shocking transition from his dark room--with its dingy concrete floors and back-lit walls--but it was only a few paces to the tube anyways, and he made his way there with the mindless, practiced steps of routine.

Falling into the bucket seat of his car, Jacob watched the hatch-door close him in and directed his attention to the screen. The words, Welcome Jacob Maynard, pulsed before him. He’d been promoted last year, and the company had given him his own capsule, with his name and everything. It hadn’t been the raise he expected but it beat sitting shoulder to shoulder with a thousand others carrying out countless one-sided conversations through video chats, or else watching movies with no headphones. Jacob’s dad had tried to teach him to be mindful in public, but he’d been fighting a losing battle, even back then.

Jacob tapped the screen with his fingers and opened his email like he always did on his way to work. Even though HR cautioned them not to work off the clock--the best way to deal with the long shifts and quick turnover--Jacob knew you didn’t get promoted by watching movies all the time, and well he’d had things to save for.

His fingers itched to check his personal email again, but he stilled the impulse.

“You have to stop checking sometime,” he whispered to himself.

Then he closed his accounts and pulled up a movie.

7:10AM

Jacob stared at his work forum for a few moments, trying to discern what kinds of jobs were up for the day, but they all blurred together. He hadn’t slept well. He’d normally have finished at least two tasks by now, but his log showed zilch. Maybe he’d get some coffee and wake up first.

He looked down at the menu on the surface of his desk and selected his usual black coffee, opting for the large version today. Then he rubbed his eyes and pulled up the news on the screen in front of him.

Nothing too big in the headlines: a tunnel fire three districts over, server-glitches on the tube, a missing person report; those were rare these days.

They hadn’t always been, in fact when he was younger, his father had gone missing, just disappeared, never to be seen again. Looking back, he supposed a lot of people had. He shook his head. Most of the time he was fine, but some days, like that day for some reason, he found himself thinking about him a lot.

But security was better now. People were happier, safer. At least that’s what the article assured him now. He made a mental note to call his sister later.

Jacob read a bit about the server glitch, seeing as that was concurrent with his line of work. Apparently an entire cars’ worth of entertainment consoles had gone out. Just shorted. Not for long, ten seconds at most, but it had unnerved a lot of people. Jacob reckoned they’d see something in the forums about it soon and made a mental note to take whatever work came up for it.

A small waiter-bot wheeled up beside his feet, carrying his beverage. Jacob grabbed it from the tray and dismissed the bot with a wave. He took a sip, not even minding that he scalded his tongue, and tabbed back to the forum.

8:30PM

“Where’s Tess?”

An elderly Korean gentleman named Lenny Choi, drew Jacob’s attention from the screen on his table. His expression was playful, an acquaintance pretending to be a friend.

“Uh, not here,” Jacob said with an exhale. He liked Choi, but in retrospect perhaps it had been stupid to go there tonight. Honestly, he hadn’t really thought about it. Maybe Tess was right; he was a pathetic creature of habit.

“You look a little glum? Wanna try something new tonight? The special maybe?”

Jacob looked down at the special on the screen. The price was more than he’d normally spend; he usually picked the bento-box because it was the best deal. But it wasn’t like he had any immediate expenditures at the moment.

“Just the usual,” he said, the words coming out of his mouth before he could argue with them.

“All right then. Maybe try our new game then?”

“Not really in the mood for games tonight,” Jacob said sitting back.

But Choi reached down and swiped his screen.

“Find all the anomalies and you get twenty-five percent off tonight’s dinner.”

Jacob looked down at the screen and spotted one off the bat.

11:30PM

“Come on, we’ve got this last room and then the trail to the mountaintop pass opens.”

“Man, I’m fried,” Jordan’s voice rasped into his headset, “what are you doing up this late anyways. You normally kick me off at ten.”

Jacob put his controller in his lap, rubbed his eyes and didn’t respond.

“Is this about Tess?” Jordan said after a moment.

Again, Jacob didn’t answer. Instead he picked up the controller and powered down the game. But Jordan was still in his ears.

“Dude, you’ve gotta forget her. I knew from the start she was wrong for you.”

“Oh yeah? How?” Jacob asked defensively.

“I dunno. She’s stuck up, bro.”

“No, she wasn’t.”

“Trust me, I’m a girl. Girls don’t treat their guys like that unless they think they’re all better than them.”

Jacob thought about this for a moment and then mumbled into the mic.

“Maybe she was better.”

“What’s that? Are you falling asleep on me again?”

“Talk tomorrow, sis,” Jacob said.

“Get some sleep, brother.”

His place wasn’t big; the gaming screen took up the whole right-hand wall, and his bunk stood to the left. Jacob flopped onto it now, tossing his headset and nearly crashing into his pillow. But though his body ached with exhaustion, sleep eluded him. He flipped over and looked at the top of his bunk, clicking the button beside him that turned on the screen. He scrolled through a few movie choices and picked one.

Jordan was right. He’d stayed up past normal and had gained a second wind. He’d be a wreck tomorrow. Hopefully the movie would quiet his brain enough to fall asleep.

But as he laid there watching the opening credits, his screen unexpectedly shorted out. Jacob blinked a few times. He hadn’t seen that happen since he was a kid. What was going on? Two glitches in twenty-four hours?

Then, Jacob’s phone began to ring.

He looked down at it and saw a number he didn’t recognize. 1005878377. He let it ring, not sure what to do with that--it wasn’t like they had unsolicited callers anymore. But before he could decide to answer it or not, it stopped ringing, and his movie resumed.

Jacob might have been unsettled if it weren’t for the exhaustion setting in, so he made a mental note to be unsettled tomorrow.

DAY 2

7:00AM

COMPANY WIDE ALERT

The words caught Jacob’s eyes before anything else. He opened the message and read it carefully.

Valued employee,

Be advised to ignore any and all messages from 100k_PT3ss. Messages with this username in the subject line or calls from unknown number 1005878377 will result in compromise of personal and company servers. The breach has been reported to the Chamberlin.

“Committed to the safety and freedom of your fellow man.”

CIO of the CC, Reuben Holden

Jacob scanned his inbox and saw he did have an email with that subject line, so he deleted it promptly. Then he tabbed to his personal email and found another, so he deleted that one too. You had to hand it to the CC--they were fast; he hadn’t even seen those messages half an hour ago, and the Chamberlin’s Chamber had detected, assessed and put out a company-wide notice about it. He couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride at being one of their ‘valued employees.’

Suddenly Jacob remembered the odd phone call and the glitch in his movie the night before. He’d nearly forgotten because he’d passed his morning in a frenzied state due to oversleeping. But he pulled up the log on his phone now and scrolled to the missed calls.

Yup, same number.

Jacob was glad he’d trusted his gut and ignored it. There were huge demerit points for causing a breach, and if his company’s response had been that quick, odds were, the hack was already doing some damage.

He took a deep breath and ordered his coffee again, scrolling through the forums for anything related to the glitch, though oddly, he saw nothing.

8:30PM

A message pinged on all his devices simultaneously. He could tell, not because he was looking, but because he heard the collective chirp of all his electronics around him.

He’d skipped games that night. He just wasn’t in the mood for a lecture from Jordan. Not to mention the lack of sleep the night before had completely thrown him off, which was why he didn’t usually deviate from his schedule in the first place, but good luck convincing Tess that there was method to his madness. Or dullness.

Instead he’d put on a movie, like he had the night before. Part of him was waiting for another short, though he hadn’t heard anything more about the hacker, virus, whatever it was.

Regardless, it wasn’t really a surprise when his movie cut out and the screen went black again. Jacob sat up halfway and rested on his elbows, watching as a chat box displayed an invitation from l00k_pT3ss. He hadn’t even known there was a message center on his film account, but l00k_pT3ss had found it easily enough.

It unnerved him, seeing his accounts so thoroughly entreated by this enigmatic invitation, but that compared nothing to how unnerved he felt when his phone began to ring again.

The unknown number.

Jacob stared at it, unable to answer it but also unable to silence it. He had to admit he was incredibly curious. Intrigued even. But he also knew the risks of opening links and answering calls. It was most likely people’s curiosity that resulted in l00k_pT3ss’s success so far: the shortages on the tubes, his movie, and the permeation of all his accounts. So instead he let it go unanswered again.

Jacob found himself staring at the missed call notification for several minutes, until he was jolted back to attention by another call. Fortunately, this time, he knew the number.

“This is Jacob Maynard,” Jacob answered alertly.

“Jacob, this is Rueben Holden, CIO of the Chamberlin’s Chamber.”

“Yes, of course, Mr. Holden,” a pause, “what can I do for you?”

“As you may have noticed, we are dealing with a bit of an issue. In times like these we like to call in a small task force to assess and handle the situation, and we’d like you to be a part of it.”

Jacob was surprised, but he didn’t know if he should’ve been. He was the most promoted in the last two years.

“Yes of course, I’d be glad to help.”

“We’ll need you to come in immediately, in that case.”

“Oh really? Right now?” Jacob said, taking stock of himself in the dark.

“You will, of course, be compensated generously for your extra time.”

“No, no, of course. No problem. I’ll be there in half an hour.”

“See you soon, Jacob,” Reuben said, and then hung up promptly.

DAY 3

7:00AM

Jacob had been given a grace period to go home, shower and catch a bit of sleep before returning for his normal hours. Unfortunately, being on the all-night task force was not a free pass from his day job. But it was just until they caught this l00k_pT3ss.

Jacob tightened the towel around his waist as he made his way to the sink, his hand absently finding his razor and lathering his jaw with cream. At first his eyes mindlessly followed the strokes as they always did, but then his attention was called to a small yellow alert at the top of the mirror, just under the clock.

His heart stopped. It was just a mirror. A smart mirror, yes, with sensors and the like, but it didn’t have communication abilities. Or it shouldn’t have had.

But there it was, plain as day, a small, pulsating notification. L00k_pT3ss.

Jacob looked around. This more than anything made him feel watched. Compromised. Maybe even a little violated. But that’s when he noticed something else.

He’d been staring at the username for so long that it had kind of stopped looking like a word. But there, staring into the mirror she’d bought for him, he noticed something new.

T3ss.

He lifted a trembling hand and despite all the warnings and better judgement, tapped on the yellow alert.

His screen went blank except the message. Four words.

look up way out

8:00AM

Jacob waited for the morning traffic around his desk to clear before tabbing away from the forums and pulling up his encrypted search engine. Casting a look around one more time, he looked up the words “way out.”

A myriad of results surfaced: a musical band called Way Out, a series of images for exit signs, a few disturbing articles on a cult from the twenty-first century--he shuddered and hoped that if it was Tess, she wasn’t mixed up in something like that--but in the end he didn’t find anything that felt worth his search.

“Jacob,” a voice sounded from behind him. He startled and swivelled to see who called. It was his boss’s boss, Reuben Holden.

“Mr. Holden,” he acknowledged, unable to hide his surprise.

“Great work last night. My associates assure me that thanks to you, we are close to finding this guy.”

Jacob didn’t know what to say to this because they hadn’t made much progress at all.

“As a gesture of our appreciation, we’re offering you a ten percent raise.”

Jacob was stunned for a moment. An actual raise. And such a large one. He suddenly felt guilty for having opened the message that morning and hoped to God his mirror wasn’t linked to any of his other systems.

“I don’t know what to say. Thank you, sir.”

“A small compensation for the hours you’ll be putting in, no doubt. Thanks for your commitment and loyalty to this company’s mission: we know you’d do anything to ensure the safety and freedom of your fellow man.”

3:00AM

Jacob stared at this clock on his phone. 3:00AM. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes. He’d chosen to work through the night rather than go home and come back in. It had taken stamina, grit, but the credits in his account from his raise had encouraged him to do so. He hadn’t seen anything delivered that quickly in the history of his company and it only added to the urgency of the project.

Jacob had felt guilty at first for indulging the message--as though Tess would really try and to talk to him that way--but when there were no real repercussions he put it from his mind and told himself not to be so stupid again.

Fried, but oddly wired, Jacob stared at his bunk. His screen enticed him with previews of movies, landscapes with music, ploys to turn his mind off for him, but for some reason it all tired him out more. He clicked off the screen and laid in the darkness.

It was strange, not something he did often, and he might have turned the screen back on, had his every bone not argued with the thought of moving.

So, he sunk into his bed, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dark, or else close on their own with the delivery of heavy sleep. But they didn’t close. They stared into the dark for a long time until, in that dark, something began to emerge.

At first he thought it was his imagination, but the longer he stared, the more he was certain. There were words. Written on the ceiling, normally obscured by the top of his bunk above him. He slid over to get a better look. Yes. There were words. Lots of words. He stood and turned on the lights, not his screens or consoles, just the lights. It made him feel oddly exposed in his dingy room, but also somewhat gave the feeling of waking from a dream. In the light it was clearer than day. His ceiling was covered--completely covered--with names graffitied in paint, some extremely faded, others somewhat more recent. And in bright yellow, neon paint, in the forefront, was his own.

Jacob.

How had he’d never seen this before?

Suddenly the message hit him.

Look up. Way Out.

Next to his name was an arrow pointing out of his room. All feelings of exhaustion disappeared as he crossed to his door, opening it in an instant and throwing his eyes to the ceiling. It was early in the morning, so the bright corridor lights were dim. They normally forced his eyes down, but now he could look up, and he found the bright paint readily. More arrows and the next set of words.

Work. Way Out.

Work. The tubes wouldn’t be running yet but he could walk the tracks. It would take the better part of an hour, but he wasn’t waiting.

Jacob spent the walk staring upward, seeing messages to other named people scrawled all over the ceiling of the tubes. How had no one noticed this? Did the Chamberlin know about this? It was so astonishing to him that he felt like a blind man recovering his vision. He couldn’t help but trace the hours of his day, trying to discover if he really, truly, never looked up at the messages directing him the way out.

Where was out though? Did he even want to go out? Of course, he did--behind his awe was anger, anger that there was an out he’d never even been shown. Commitment to safety and freedom my right foot, he thought.

He wouldn’t stop till the messages did.

He made it to his office and turned on the lights. This ceiling was covered as well, making the clean, cubicle-divided space that stretched before him look like a movie set in some obscure dark cave. He found the yellow arrows and followed them to his desk. Above him the words read: Follow the Bot.

What bot? The coffee bot? How obtuse.

Or was it? Whoever this person was, they sure knew his life, his habits. He summoned the bot without hesitation and when it arrived with the coffee, he waived it away as he normally would. But this time he followed closely behind.

The bot led him throughout the office, and Jacob followed, until the bot disappeared into a small hole in the wall. He hesitated for a moment, but then knelt and squeezed through.

On the other side was a large room with a maze of conveyer belts weaving around one another. There were countless holes like the one he’d crawled through, all the way up the four walls around him. He followed the bot as it roved along speedily, ducking and crawling when he needed to manoeuvre the belts, until it disappeared through an archway along the back wall.

Jacob looked around. There wasn’t any writing here, the ceilings were too high. His only option was to continue to follow the bot. So, he knelt again and crawled through.

Much to his surprise, he found himself in a familiar place, though definitely not one he expected.

“Jacob?” a voice called to him. Jacob wheeled around.

“Mr. Choi?”

Though the restaurant was dim, he still knew it well. Only he was on the other side of the bar where Choi normally served him his dinner.

“What are you doing here?”

Jacob paused, not sure how to explain what was happening. But Choi wasn’t looking for him to answer.

“We didn’t expect you this soon,” he let out a mirthful laugh, “oh this will both prove her wrong and make her day!”

“I’m sorry?” Jacob whispered, looking around.

“Come, we can’t wait much longer, it’ll be sunrise soon.”

“Sunrise…”

“People will start heading to work,” Choi corrected, grabbing him by the arm and leading him away.

Choi directed him back into the large room of conveyer belts, and toward a high, vertical ladder. He wasted no time ascending it, indicating that Jacob do the same. While his body was feeling the lack of sleep, adrenaline coursed through him and he climbed with alacrity. When they made it to the top, Choi pushed open a hatch of sorts, and climbed into the dark space above, offering a hand down to Jacob.

It looked like another tunnel, like the tube, but there were no tracks. Also, unlike the tube, there was a light at the end. Choi led the way in silence, walking with a sort of excited, uneven gait, tossing a smile occasionally, but saying nothing.

Finally, they approached the light and Choi’s words about the sunrise earlier began to make sense. Jacob had never seen a sunrise himself, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know what one was. His eyes were almost blinded by the natural light--even though it was dim and pale and half-hidden by the horizon.

“Jacob?”

A familiar voice called out to him. A voice he’d know anywhere, but one he hadn’t expected to hear ever again.

“Jacob!” the woman called again. She’d been waiting by the edge of tunnel exit. Was she waiting for him?

“Tess?” Jacob asked. He couldn’t see clearly, her silhouette dark against the daylight.

“You surprising idiot, what are you doing here!” she said, rushing forward.

“I…I looked up,” he stammered. He didn’t seem able to say more. Perhaps he was in shock.

“I didn’t think we’d get to you for at least another month!”

“What do you mean? Who’s we?”

“Well…we’re…us. Everyone who’s ever left the tunnels. Come, there are a lot of people who want to meet you--we have a temporary space, we take shifts you see, to wait for anyone who might show up.”

But Jacob couldn’t seem to follow Tess as she left the tunnel into the emerging sun. It was a lot to take in, the light, the air, the knowledge that there was a world outside the tunnels and that there were others…

Tess paused and watched him for a moment, “Jacob, your dad’s here,” she said quietly.

She always had been able to read his mind. It was one of the reasons he’d found her so appealing. Though now he suspected there was more at play to her knowing his every move and thought. He suddenly felt taken advantage of, compromised.

Compromised.

“Tess, my CIO was convinced I was gonna figure out who was hacking us. I didn’t understand at the time because I hadn’t actually made any real progress, but what if he knew I was onto discovering you this way and I’ve led them to you? Are you guys in danger?”

Tess took in his words and then shook her head.

“Quite the opposite,” she said with a smile, turning away and walking again, “he’d promoted you, given you a raise, made you feel valued in the hopes you’d keep your head down--literally--and stay out of trouble. But he underestimated you. I suppose I did too.”

Jacob finally followed her out and tried to listen as his senses were overwhelmed by the fresh grass on his ankles and the breeze on his face. How could one ache for something they’d never experienced before? He didn’t know, but he felt like he’d known these things all along and his anger deepened at having been denied them.

“What he didn’t realize,” Tess continued, “is that when he gave you all that extra access, we were also getting that access. It was our plan eventually--you’ve been on our radar for a while, as one of CC’s up and coming techies.”

“Are you saying you were using me?” Jacob said.

Tess stopped and turned around, walking back to him slowly. Surprisingly, she had a small smile on her face.

“Would that make you terribly angry?”

He thought about it for a moment, trying to keep his head clear as she touched his collar affectionately and moved in close.

“Will we be able to get Jordan out?”

She nodded slowly. “Thanks to you, everyone who wants to leave will be given the opportunity. And much sooner than we’d planned.”

“You said I’d never hear from you again,” he whispered.

“I did say that,” she whispered with a smile.

“But here you are.”

“Sorry,” she said leaning in to lay her lips on his, “I know how much you hate hypocrites.”

END