The Higher Define (2018)

24

"Hey. I've been waiting for you." Hayley stands in the middle of the room of subconscious, her eyes round with excitent. It sends a shiver of thrill through my blood as she motions for me to come over.

The room is filled with bubbles- circular transparent circles that give off a shiny reflection of a rainbow and in each bubble, there is a memory.

"Sometimes when the room can't really figure out where you want to go, it shows a couple of options." Hayley explains, bringing a hand up to pop a bubble.

"It looked different when I first came into this room."

"What did it look like?"

"Kind of plain. It didn't have any bubbles- just took me right to the beach."

Hayley laughs and draws up one of the bubble's code with the length of her fingers, slowly downloading the address of the place that was presented in the bubble.

"It's because you just joined. The Hub isn't used to you. It needs to take some time to get familiar with your code and process the data before it can offer you choices that you might favour."

I watch as Hayley finishes installing the coordinates of the location and saunters over to the thin panel at the side of the room. She punches in a few numbers using the keypad before returning to her original position.

The transformation is immediate. The room around us swirls, its spinning movement growing faster and faster as the bubbles slowly hover high up into the air, popping one by one.

Only the bubble that Hayley consulted previously remains intact, dancing and floating hazily along the ceiling which slowly crumbles into fragments that fall away.

We are standing on the side of a road. That's the first thing that comes to my mind when the world that is pulled apart at the seams slowly constructs itself into a whole new one.

But when I glance up at my surroundings, I have no idea how to express my delight, or my shock when the scenery seems to swamp my vision with bursting bright coloours of light and blinking neon signs.

There are a couple of high rise buildings that scrape the sky which are shaped like ancient historical monuments from the Outside. They have sharp edges that slash against the clouds but they're painted in a variety of colours that emphasizes their flare.

A tall statue of a lady that is painted in teal stands in the midst of it all, her hand bearing a torch and her other arm clutching a book. Her expression is unwavering and I feel as if all the air has been knocked out of my body.

The statue of Liberty. One of the most historical pieces that got destroyed during the Purge.

It's not the real thing, though. A replication of the true piece of art, I think slowly.

There is a soft creak that rings out in the silent air. I turn to search for the source of the noise and find that it's coming from a huge wheel that is spinning in a full rotation. It is fixed to the ground with the assistance of long while poles that run to the centre of the wheel before rooting itself to the ground. Though the pods attached to it are painted white, I can see the little panels that line it, that will blink colours when it gets dark.

"Where are we?" My voice comes out sounding stunned and I try not to blush but Hayley doesn't seem to notice it.

"We're in a part of what used to be the Outside. It's called Las Vegas. It's a place in the United States of America."

We keep walking down the road and enter one of the buildings. As I walk in, I'm immediately greeted by the sights of empty pavements that are streaked with authentic dirt. It runs through a canal that is dotted with gondolas. Shops and stalls line the perimeter of the dirt track, each one bursting with its own flashy tone, each one shouting out at the non-existent passersby to patron them.

"Have you been here before? Is this why was in one of the bubbles?" I ask, curious.

A strange expression dances across Hayley's face, "I've been here before. For one of my missions when I was a new Higher Define."

Those words are sufficient to steal the air from my lungs.

"You've been to the Outside before?" My sentence sounds more like a statement of horror than how I have phrased it to be and Hayley gives me a sad smile of amusement at the tone.

"Yes, I have."

"So it looks like this, then? The buildings still standing tall but devoid of people?"

We cross over a bridge and I catch myself starting down a narrow flight of stairs that leads to the canal's waters. I'm about to stop myself when Hayley shakes her head at me, urgibg me to carry on.

"No. The buildings aren't erect, anymore. They were all destroyed by the Purge, remember? And no one has ever stayed alive or dared to go out there to fix things. This is just... how I wish it looked like when I first went there."

I settle myself at the gondola's tip, where the nose of the boat curves sharply. Hayley sits at the other end, where there is a thin bench squeezed into the small device of transport.

I grab a paddle that lies near the stern and immerse it in the shallow water before making a sweeping motion and propelling the gondola forward. My movements are slow but the ride is enjoyable, with no one to watch or care about what we're doing. The silence is comfortable and when my arms are exhausted from the motion, Hayley takes over.

"What was your first mission about?

"To check out the architecture. I'm one of the facilitators for the construction that happens inside the Hub. Richard wanted to send me and a couple of others out to take note of the ruins and how to better improve."

Her face turns bright with pride, "The waterfall that you see in the Hub? I had a say in the planning and the schemes to make it work."

"The waterfall's gorgeous."

"Thank you." Hayley beams as she dug the paddle along the tiny ripples we were creating through the boat's movements.

"What else was the Outside like?"

Something sad brims in Hayley's eyes as soon as she hears my question and I wonder if maybe I said the wrong thing.

She answers, after a while.

"Kind of broken. Not the buildings type of broken but like... something that I don't think will ever be fixed."

"Even after all that you have created in the Hub? You don't think it's possible to do the same in the Outside?"

Hayley looks more crestfallen than ever when she replies.

"I don't think anyone will be able to understand how unrepairable the Outside is until they see it with their own eyes, Aspen."