Outside the Gray

Outside, the Gray seemed softer than usual. If you looked hard enough, you could almost see the sun, a bright white radiating through. Taz was drinking a cup of coffee, standing at a counter in her cubicle, staring out the window. She enjoyed the early hours when the sun could break through for a few short hours. The air purifiers buzzed in the background and the sludgy drink in her hand was starting to take effect. In these moments, when only the street lighters were moving about in the city outside, she felt almost calm.

There was a knock on the door of her cubicle and she sighed. These moments of quiet never lasted long. She gulped down the rest of the coffee from her cup and placed the soiled object into the sanitizer. Then she walked the few steps it took to reach her door. It was the only door in the 12" x 12" box she called home. She pulled it open.

A figure in stood in the doorway. It was covered head to toe in a GMAT suit made from a material that had been developed years ago to keep the Gray from seeping in. A gloved hand waved and then moved to remove the mask that was covering the figure’s face.

“Heya, Mag,” Taz said, “I’ll be ready in a second.”

With the mask removed, the face of a young man could be seen. He had long dark brown hair, tied back into a short ponytail. If it weren’t for his eyes, he may have been mistaken for a man in his mid-fifties. There were deep lines carved into his forehead, around the eyes, and to the sides of his mouth. But his eyes gave away his true age. They were youthful, open, and earnest. When he looked at you, you felt a flicker of something. Something that felt very much like hope.

Taz knew her own eyes were nothing like her friend’s. Hers were dark. So dark they were nearly purple. When she looked at you, you felt nothing. Just darkness. Vast and empty.

Taz had walked back to the other side of the room to grab her own mask. Her back was turned and she closed her own eyes, holding them shut. She didn’t want Mag to know but sometimes when she looked at him it hurt her. A part of her was glad the Gray made it so that everyone had to wear a GMAT suit and a mask. It was easier that way. It helped hide the ugly… and it helped hide the hope.

There was a crackle over the speaker and she tilted her head up to look at it. She knew Mag and everyone else would be doing the same. The voice was broadcast through every cubicle and through the streets of the City as well.

People of the City

There was a high-pitched screech and then silence. Then the voice crackled on and started again.

People of the City - join me in welcoming this day, the three-hundreth. Let us bow our heads to the ascendancy of our great metropolis. We have come a long way since the first, when the A-crash left us with the uncertainty of what could be achieved. Now we triumph in the economic fortune and civil glory of our government and leaders. It is your puissance that has led us here. Recognize what your sacrifices and efforts have done for your neighbors, for your children, for your community. Purifiers, aeros, builders, miners, and lighters, go forward with your day and do not return until you have achieved success. This is repentance for the sins that brought the crash upon us. This is how you’ll exonerate yourself and save us from the Gray. Go forward and go pure.

The crackling box went silent. Taz pulled on her mask and walked back to Mag. He pulled on his own mask and the two walked to the elevator. Fluorescent lights sputtered above them as they pushed the button and waited for the moving box to arrive. When it did, they stepped inside and rode to the lobby of the building.

Before exiting, they switched on their headlamps and shoulder lights. Both checked to make sure oxygen flowed through their masks before opening the first set of doors, waiting until a green light cleared them and then exiting the second set of doors. The lighters had done their job and the streets were illuminated with glowing lanterns. Still, the Gray was so heavy that it was difficult to see more than a couple of feet in front of them. They walked carefully through, down Columbus toward the Pyramid building.

Both Taz and Mag were aeros. It was one of the most distinguished professions. Taz had originally thought she’d want to be a miner, heading outside the City to collect energy. Miners sent pressure into the earth to extract energy and bring it back to the City and were transported to various locations each day. However, each year, there seemed to be less and less energy to collect and now, only a few students were chosen to be miners every ten years. Luckily, Taz had had a mind for physics and calculus and had been chosen as an aero instead. She and Mag were working on plans to create a new City on Mars or Venus.

The two made it another block when there was a sudden shrieking. For the most part, City inhabitants were safe, but every once in a while one of the few remaining animals of earth would wander in, hungry and looking for something to fill its stomach. The Gray had changed these animals from what they had once been (Taz had seen their original forms in books) and most were half-starved. Taz almost felt sorry for them, but not sorry enough to let them kill her or a fellow citizen.

She peered into the Gray, trying to locate where the sounds were coming from. Instead of an animal, she saw a woman being held by two blue guards, their GMAT suits a deep navy. She was wailing and straining against their hands. Taz felt herself recoil.

The woman was not wearing a normal GMAT suit or a ventilator. Instead, she wore a green garment that covered her body and a circular helmet that showed her face. Her eyes were wild, like one of those animals, and as she twisted and cried out, she made eye contact with Taz. Or at least it seemed that way. Taz was wearing her mask and there was no way the woman would have been able to know whether or not Taz returned her gaze.

Something odd happened with the woman’s movements. She no longer seemed to be flailing uncontrollably. Instead, she was pulling. Pulling and pulling and yelling. Pulling closer to Taz and Mag. Her hands were clenched into fists and her eyes were rolling.

“Sorry about this, folks,” one of the blue guards said, “she’s crazy, this one. Came from the North.”

Taz nodded but Mag didn’t move. He was looking at the woman and Taz could feel him trembling. Mag hated watching people suffer. Taz had grown accustomed to it.

“We can fix it!” The woman yelped and, again, it felt as though she were staring directly into Taz’s eyes.

“Erm,” Taz flinched away again, but Mag was standing in place.

“Hold onto the bitch!” The guard yelled.

“What did she do?” Mag asked.

“Tried to cause a riot.” One of the guards replied, gritting his teeth as he held tighter onto the woman’s wrist.

“Stood on the steps of the Civic Center itself. Started yelling about how the governor was making the Gray worse.”

“Couldn’t have that.”

“Stop the miners!” The woman spat and saliva stuck to the inside of the globe helmet she wore.

“Shut up!” The guard growled.

“Stop the aeros!” She yelled out.

The guard raised a fist to hit her but Mag moved forward. His energy was gentle, slow, and the guard put down his fist.

“We’re aeros, miss,” he said calmly, “we’re doing good things. We’re going to set up a city on Venus. We’re going to get us out of the Gray.”

“You’re making the Gray,” the woman said.

“No, the Gray has always been here. We’re escaping it.”

The woman had stopped fighting the guards now and was staring at Mag’s masked face. Her head tilted and then she blinked slowly.

“You’ll bring it with you,” she said and her voice was quiet. Then she turned to Taz, “you’re an aero too?”

“Yes,” Taz answered.

“And you believe what your friend says?”

“Yes,” Taz answered.

The sounds of sirens wailed and a beam of light rotated through the sky, chopping through the Gray on its way toward them. The guard vehicle arrived and the two men began to move the woman toward it. The world was a monochromatic mist around them, the faint glow of the lanterns barely illuminating her figure even though it was only feet away. Still, Taz saw the golden object fall from the woman’s hand and heard it hit the pavement. It sounded like bells.

The guard car drove away and it was as though the woman had never been there at all.

“You ready?” Asked Mag.

“One sec,” Taz replied.

She moved slowly. Something told her that she should turn and forget about the gold object. She should leave and head to the aero headquarters with Mag. But she knew she wouldn’t. She knew that the object had been dropped for her.

Using her headlamp, she swayed slowly until it broke through the Gray and glimmered on the gold that lay in the ground. Taz reached down and picked up a locket. It was large, the size of her hand. Not the dainty accessory she’d seen in old books. Mag came up and stood beside her.

“What’s that?” He asked.

Taz didn’t answer. She turned it and found its clasp. Her gloved hands were clumsy but somehow she managed to pry the heart open. Inside, she found a note. There was also a black object the size of her pinky nail. On the note was a map. A map that led to a place outside the city. Written in shaky handwriting was a message.

Outside the City, it still grows. Help it spread. It starts with you.