2036 Chapter 3: The Night Before

3. The night before.

22^nd May 2036

Lilian the hacc man.

Hey Lil, Marcus was throwing a party

at his place. I’m nearby if you wanna lift

:)

No thanks.

C’mon man! Everyone’s there, even

Unger probably.

Where is it.

Marcus’s house in New Oakland.

No

Come on man, please!

I said no.

Fair enough.

Chat ended.

I pulled up to Lilian’s apartment block in my car just as he walked out the door.

"Get in Lil."

“RHYS, I SAID N- “

“I know exactly what you said.” I said, “Sitting in that apartment all day, doin’… whatever it is you do has changed you man!”

“Don’t- “

“Back in TRANsport you went to almost every party the other drivers had! Sure, you didn’t do much, and I had to ask you to come most times, but you were there man! You were with me and the rest of ‘em!

“Working at TRANsport was one of the worst things to happen to me!” He snapped back.

“This isn’t about TRANsport, Lil. Please, just come.”

…

We stood there awkwardly for almost a minute until Lilian let up. 

“Ok” he said, “Bit I’m not happy about this whatsoever.”

For the vast majority of the journey Lilian didn’t say a word… or move, come to think of it. He just looked angrily at the back of my seat. Then again, Lilian did have a reputation of holding extremely long grudges against almost anyone, from a guy who pushed him in the streets around a year ago to a Wendy’s employee who got his order wrong back in University.

It’s crazy how long I’ve known him. The first time we met was when he started college back in ‘22, when his sister Margo was in almost all of my classes. We were seniors and he was a junior, but his intelligence (at least in technology) was through the roof. When my PC broke down, Margo said he would fix it for me. Just a day later he’d completely rewired it, replaced the graphics card, he’d even polished the thing. He definitely knew his stuff when it came to tech. But the same couldn’t be said about his social life. He didn’t strike me as someone who would even leave his apartment, let alone fly from Oregon to Pennsylvania. Then again, sending someone to Philly University because their older sibling went there was pretty common in the 20’s, since they were offering reduced student fees, making it one of the cheapest universities to attend back then.

As I drove through the rainy streets of San Francisco, I saw the usual sights. Old American buildings dilapidated and abandoned, and newer buildings, mostly chain restaurants and apartment blocks, in peak condition, as if anyone who even looked at it funny would get sent to re-education. We passed a least 5 “war memorials” and 10 government approved anti-American graffiti walls. Most of them were either the UISC’s flag with one of Chairwoman Brie’s sayings, or cartoonish send-ups of US President McTavish. I honestly don’t know how one nation could hate one guy so much they payed graffiti artists to directly make fun of him. He wasn’t even such a bad guy… well, he didn’t do much, just occasionally going to meetings to improve foreign relations with some country in the middle east or giving funding to charities. Why the UISC’s government hated him so much was beyond me…

I realised I had driven all the way from San Fran to New Oakland without even knowing. Strangely enough, Marcus’s house was just around the bend.

I pulled up into a spare parking space outside his house. Surprisingly, Marcus actually owned a house, instead of one of the many flats in the towering Oakland apartment blocks. It was also in pretty good condition, with clear glass windows, faded brick walls and a polished wooden door that wasn’t ripped off its hinges. It was like a house from Old Oakland was plucked from the 90’s and placed in the modern-day towering neighbourhoods of New Oakland.

As me and Lilian got out of the car, we saw a man standing completely still on the pavement. He seemed to be looking out at the Alameda re-education centre. I walked towards him, only to realise it was Unger, of all people.

“Um… Unger? You good?”

“No, I’m not.” He replied “I’m looking at my office. Seven years ago.”

I was confused.

“I worked as a re-educator in that place for seven damn years of my life. Seven years of guarding the cells of innocents. Seven years of watching the UISC break people. Seven years of seeing pain, loss and sadness. The words on the front of that centre said
‘Udv a pokolban'… ‘Welcome to hell”. It was sad I was the only one there who knew what it meant. I could have started a riot or, tackled the guards of an interrogation. I could have done anything to save those people from the backhands and water hoses of those evil people who laughed as innocent civilians lost their minds. The worst part is I have no idea why… I have no idea.”

Through that entire speech, Unger’s eyes never left Alameda. It was a haunting image. It almost reminded me of the ending of Apocalypse Now, where Colonel Kurtz spoke his last words. Lilian was strangely unaffected by Unger’s speech.

Suddenly, he snapped out of his trance and noticed I was there. “Sorry, Rhys… It’s just…”

“Unger don’t worry. Just- just come inside.” I said.

He gave me an understanding look. “Yeah. Yeah you’re right.”

I had seen a side to Unger I had never seen before. He was usually a motivational speaker who always thought of his team first, who was always as charismatic and understanding as they come. But I had just seen him at his lowest.

But it wasn’t a time for feeling sorry. It was a time for Marcus’s party.