Deadenders
First Place Winner in the scifidimensions 2005 Short Fiction Contest
by Robin Diduch © 2015
The beat jumped, jived, and rock ‘n rolled.
It was twentieth century music night at the Hub, the coolest place on Gateway station. The hip, young crowd gyrated on the dance floor in tune with pulsating strobe lights while vintage disco balls painted a kaleidoscope of colors across the soaring industrial steel walls of the former hanger bay turned night club. Looking down on the crowd from his raised platform a DJ scratched out tunes on a turntable with real vinyl records.
The sight was hypnotic, but the butterflies gnawing at my stomach made sure I couldn’t enjoy it – too much on the line.
Gotta chill out – focus.
Look away baby, we can’t be connected. She catches on and turns back to the crowd. Hang in there - a little longer and we’ll be home free.
Friday night at the Hub and everyone who’s looking for some action - or to see and be seen - is here. Girly girls and buff juicer guys mingle, but mainly it's neutrals and their obsessive pursuit of androgyny. No reproduction, no need for different sexes. They are thankful for “the gift.” I spit on it.
Yellow Sun and their so-called gift of a life free from death can burn.
My side of the room is where all the neutrals are hanging out, making me stand out like a smear of feces across clean white sheets. I’m drawing too much attention. The neutrals throw me disapproving looks. They’re not digging my testosterone smell. I reek of trouble.
Across the room Sara’s drawing too much of a different kind of attention. The hot and the pumped up juicers want a taste. She blows them off. One flexes a bicep and mouths something to her, she pretends not to see him.
Out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of Janos entering through the back door.
Subtle: he slips the bouncer a couple bills.
Hit the lights - it's showtime.
* * * * *
Wake up…
“WAKE UP!”
Pulled back from eternity I wipe the vomit from my mouth and see a woman pounding on my chest.
This is how I met Sara.
“Sorry, I would have done mouth to mouth but you’re kind of gross.”
Confirmed by the dried puke down the front of my shirt.
“I don’t blame you, you don’t know where I’ve been.”
“Sure I do, a guy as screwed over looking as you, laid out in the morgue - I’d lay odds you’re a deadender. It's okay, I’m cool with it, I’m no better.”
Deadender: 2062 an anti aging treatment is introduced to the market that changes everything. It works even better than thought and extends life indefinitely, freezing you physically at whatever age you underwent the treatment. It soon becomes known as "the gift.” Over night death becomes a none issue - for a price. It’s a steep price, one that most people can’t afford until the Yellow Sun Corp. started offering life mortgages with 100 year terms. One hundred years of being a slave to your debt, and by extension the Yellow Sun, but what’s 100 years when you could live for thousands? At least that’s what I thought when I went for the treatment. Doesn’t work for everyone though, one in a thousand people don’t survive the process: some quirk in their genetic make-up. That’s me, destined to be a brief blip on this world - a deadender, someone with no future. The part of society everyone pretends to feel sorry for but will cross to the other side of the street to avoid.
I should be dead, but Sara saved me.
Her words hit hard. Deadending wasn’t something I had considered. Also, my feet are freezing.
“Why do you have my shoes?”
“Uh… I didn’t think you were going to need them. You’re supposed to be dead.”
“How did you know I wasn’t?”
“Your breath stinks.”
“So…?”
“I noticed you had bad breath, but you shouldn’t have been breathing, right?”
“Right.”
“We gotta go, security is going to be back soon.”
“Uh… my shoes…”
She tosses them back at me and smiles.
“You owe me 20 creds for those…”
The morgue is small, just me and another guy already picked clean of anything valuable by scavengers. She gives me back my boots and leads me out through a vent.
“You can get pretty much anywhere in the station through these vents if you know the way”.
She gives me a sly look.
“Fortunately I do. By the way, what’s your name?”
“Decklan. My name is Decklan.”
* * * * *
The plan is simple: slap him with the tranq patch, grab, and go. I provide back-up. What could go wrong?
Janos moves through the crowd towards Sara, girly girl’s smile softly trying to attract his attention. They smell his power. Sara catches one more glimpse of me.
Be cool baby I got your back.
He sits at her table and Sara turns it on. She smiles coyly, all sense of fear gone. They chat. His hand slides across the table over hers. She doesn’t pull away. The juicers in the background look pissed off. I read one’s lips: “What’s she see in that scrawny…”
A quick glance to me, a fraction of a second too long, and it all goes to hell.
Janos reads it, looks back and sights me.
Sara mouths the word “sorry”.
* * * * *
Sara talks the whole way through the vent shaft. I puke the whole way, still messed up from the treatment. It doesn’t phase her and she doesn’t miss a beat. I get her whole life story: Her parents screwed up. Mom got pregnant and they couldn’t pay the fine for reproducing and make the payments on their “gifts.” They lamed it, had Sara, got caught, and got sentenced to the big sleep. Without death, bringing new life into the world is a big taboo. Getting a reproduction permit is a bureaucratic nightmare and huge dollars. Only the very wealthy can afford it. Sara was left to assume her parent’s obscene debt. With no hope of ever being able to pay it off never mind pay for the “gift.” She drifted into the underground and ended up on Gateway station trying to escape the crowds of Earth. She flew under the radar and managed to get by through scavenging and a few select sales of DNA.
A life without death only seemed to magnify the vanity of people and push them to the extremes - ultra macho men sought power either through pumping up on juice or through the pursuit of money. Women sought ideal beauty. A growing number of people renounced all sexuality as being primitive. Neutrals felt they had evolved beyond male and female and sought to change their bodies and lifestyles to eliminate sexual characteristics. The cosmetic genetics and surgery business boomed. The one gift Sara’s parents did bestow on her was thick beautiful chestnut hair and delicate features highly sought after by women who weren’t as blessed. Unfortunately she couldn’t sell the desirable copies of her genetic code openly, as the profit would just be confiscated by the Yellow Sun. Selling underground didn’t pay nearly as well, but she managed to get by.
We exit the vents in a back corridor behind the Hub, the walls vibrating with bass.
“This way.”
She slips across to the other side of the corridor and pops off a wall panel.
“Inside, hurry…”
I duck inside to discover a small unfinished room decorated with a collection of odds and ends.
“Home sweet home.”
“How did you find this place?”
“When a station this big is built the plans tend to change a bit, resulting in some dead space. You just have to know where to look.” She flashes me another smile.
“I love what you’ve done with the place.” Elegant fabrics cover the unfinished walls, a small bed in the corner, soft lighting from a fusion lamp.
“Thanks - my decorator is from Paris, you know.” She laughs and I ask her why she is so happy. She looks at me and says “Because I scavenged something really valuable today.”
She notices my confused look and realizes she has to spell it out.
“You, dumbass…”
* * * * *
Janos jumps up, flipping over the table sending drinks flying. A tap to his chest and suddenly there are eight of him peeling off in different directions. A pissed-off juicer covered in drink lurches at one, futilely trying to grab it as it passes through him.
Decoy holograms.
I move to protect Sara. Neutrals around me start freaking out and pushing for the exits. They swarm in front of me blocking my way and making me lose sight of her. In front of me a girly girl starts screaming and I hear things breaking. A Janos hologram passes through a neutral beside me. No time to be nice. I pound my way through a wall of dumbstruck neutrals towards Sara’s table.
A Janos cuts a front of me.
I chase.
Peripheral vision: Juicers beating the crap out of neutrals. Neutrals screaming but not fighting back. Janos everywhere, but no Sara.
I catch up to the one I’m chasing, it turns to me and smiles, then passes through a wall and pops out on the other side of the room.
It occurs to me the music is no longer playing.
Pain explodes across my back, collapsing me to the ground.
One last sight: Janos with Sara out the back door.
I failed.
My world goes black.
* * * * *
Sara’s bed is small for one person. With two it's downright sardine-like, but I don’t want it any other way. I need her close to me. She lays with her head across my chest while I stare at the cluster of glow in the dark stars she stuck to the ceiling yesterday. She arranged them in a heart.
Just look up and you will always know how I feel about you.
She’s restless, I can tell she’s thinking something.
“Tell me about your parents, Decklan.”
“They were good people. They worked hard trying to scrimp up and save enough for the permit to have me. They wanted badly to get the gift but felt having me was more important. They were going to get the treatment later, but the accident happened before they could save enough money…”
“Accident?”
“Shuttle accident, heading down to Earth. Typical sob story, just like everyone else’s. I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Alright. What was it like to die?”
“Imagine exhaling after holding your breath for an impossibly long time.”
“Did you see your parents? I think my parents are still looking out for me.”
“I’ll look out for you.”
“You didn’t answer my question…”
“I know.”
“Fine, how about a different question - Do you believe in God?”
“Never thought about it. Didn’t think death was something I’d need to worry about.”
“What about now? You know you’re not going to live forever now.”
“I’m too in the moment to think heavy thoughts.” I kiss her forehead.
“I’m scared to die.”
I stroke her hair trying to comfort her.
“I’m pregnant…”
My hand stops.
“Don’t leave me.”
“I’ll never leave you.”
“I know someone that can get us a permit. He kinda has a thing for me…”
“We could never afford...”
“It won’t be money he wants…”
“We’ll steal it. What’s his name?”
“Janos…”
* * * * *
“I think you killed him…”
“Nah… he’s still breathing.”
The juicer taps his foot to my ribs reminding me I’m still alive, and I open my eyes to the sight of them standing over me smiling.
“I got a message from Janos. He says to get your scrawny ass off this station. The girl doesn’t want you. She chose the rich life, buddy…”
A kick to the head punctuates the message, making me spit blood.
I drag myself back to Sara’s place and collapse on the tiny bed, immobilized by doubt.
I stare at the heart of stars on the ceiling.
Just look up and you will always know how I feel about you.
I don’t believe them. I can’t believe them.
Until Sara tells me to my face I will trust her over some juicer assholes. Every muscle in my body protests as I drag myself back up to my feet and stumble towards the door, uncertain of my next move. Before I can make it, I hear a noise outside, and brace for action.
Sara enters, her hair is messed, clothes disheveled.
“I got the permit…”
She puts her finger to my lips.
“That’s all you need to know and that’s all I ever want to say.”
She wraps her arms around me, holding me tight. My muscles contract with such force I start to shake.
“I know you want to hurt him. I know you want revenge, but we are going to just walk away and start our new life. We’re going to forget this ever happened.”
She kisses my neck.
“Promise me that.”
Choose: fight or flight. No choice at all.
I pull way from Sara and head for the exit. Her cries follow me out.
Janos must pay.
* * * * *
“Tell me about this guy Janos.”
“He’s one of the oldest people on the station, and one of the first to pay off his gift. He works for the Yellow Sun, and makes some extra cash on the side through the underground market. He arranged a few DNA sales for me. I can tell he’s into me. If I call him he will come. I can feed him a story about a friend needing the permit.
“Why didn’t you ever hook up with him?”
“Because he scares me…”
Sara gives me the name of a guy who sets me up with a tranquilizer patch. Through the front door he sells designer clothing to the wealthy people shopping the market place. Out the back door he buys and sells the more illicit underground stuff. I move along the back corridors toward the Yellow Sun offices in time to catch a glimpse of Sara exiting out the front. A man with a visible age of about twenty guides her with a hand placed on the small of her back. They laugh and smile together before she disappears into crowd. He stands and watches her walk away. Sara out of sight, I enter after him. He looks at me disapprovingly, a kid who appears to be ten years younger than me, in a suit that cost as much as the down payment on my gift.
“Can I help you?”
“Janos… is he here?”
“That would be me.”
“I had a little trouble with your product.”
“And what kind of trouble would that be?”
“Well, let’s see… nothing to get to excited about, just a little heart stoppage… oh yeah, it also made me puke on my shirt. Ruined a really nice shirt. I’d like a refund.”
“For the shirt?”
“Funny… no, the down payment.”
“I see. While I am glad to see you are feeling better, I’m afraid there will be no refund. Successful or not, you are responsible for the entire amount, including your down payment.”
“Good luck trying to collect that.”
“Oh, we will…”
“Your customer service sucks.”
“Part of the benefit of having a product everyone wants - they will come no matter what.”
I move in close, bigtime personal space violation - he takes a step back.
“If you're trying to intimidate me it won’t work. You can’t hurt me. I’m like a god compared to you. Humanity has evolved and you have been left behind. You are just going to have to get used to the idea of being an evolutionary deadend.”
* * * * *
Move faster…
Legs still wobbly from the beating I took, making me stagger like a punch drunk fighter. I careen into the market place, parting the crowds around me, until I finally drop to the floor. Sara’s cries echoing in my head. The bystanders pretend they don’t notice me, until a little girl breaks away from her exquisitely put together mother and gawks down at me.
“Ewww… you stink…”
Her mother grabs her by the arm and drags her away, scolding her for getting close to someone like me. I watch the beautiful people milling around, going from shop to shop carrying their purchases in their designer bags, and I notice none of them are smiling.
I think of Sara and drag myself to my feet. Janos’s office at the Yellow Sun is at the other side of the market. Invisible to their eyes, I move through the crowd, and wonder what they will experience through the centuries. I think back to my old life - the routine of work/eat/sleep, trying to save up enough for the down payment on my gift. I wanted it because I wanted more time. I needed more time to figure out my purpose. I needed to know the reason I’m here.
I stop. I don’t need a millennium.
I head back to Sara’s. When I enter she’s lying on the bed crying. I curl up around her and whisper I’m sorry into her ear. Her hand touches mine and slides it down to her belly.
Janos may be a god, but we created life…
THE END
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