Utopia - The Almost Politician

The Almost Politician

first in the Utopia Series

“Varhaft! Did you get the budget plans sent to the Administration of World Religions?”

With outstretched document in hand, Varhaft replied, “Yes sir, I was actually heading to your office to drop off the signed documents with your secretary.”

A look of surprise crossed the supervisor’s face as he took the papers.  “Well, well… one step ahead of the boss.”  Varhaft watched the supervisor’s eyes as he scanned the document.  His eyes went from their usual cynical squint to a slight sparkle of approval. “This looks good.  You’re good to go, then.  Have a good weekend, David.”

David Varhaft smiled and shook his manager’s hand, “You too, sir.”  David walked to the exit and input his address into the keypad.  He stepped into the clean white transporter and waited for the doors to reopen at his apartment.

He set his backpack on his sofa and changed into more casual clothes.  He looked in the mirror and ruffled the office look out of his straight brown hair.  He wandered into the kitchen area.  There were only a few options in his refrigerator as far as supper was concerned.

Ding-a-ling! David sprang for the phone, tripping over his cat.

“Damn you, Rocky,” he said as he got up on his sofa and picked up the phone.  “Jack! What’s up? Do you have it? Yes. Great, I’ll be right over.”

David jumped out the door onto the transporter pad.  The clean white brightened in rays of stabbingly radiant light.  David closed his eyes and waited for the doors to open.

“Dave!” Jack shouted as David stumbled out of the transporter.

“Jack, you need to clean your trans pad, you a…”

“So who’s the man?  I got your code for you, Dave.  It wasn’t easy, but we’re square now, and I don’t plan on ever owing you a favor again.”  Jack opened a can of beer and leaned back in his desk chair.

David laughed and dumped trash off a chair so he could sit.  “Yes, thank you, I don’t want to try and get you to do anything again, you lazy bum.  So you’re sure this will disguise my computer as hers so I can imitate her without getting caught?”

“Yep, Miss High-and-Mighty will never know why she was fired.”

“Fantastic!”

“Dave, look at this!” Jack pointed at his computer screen.  “I’ve been tapping into the Grand Head’s surveillance, and look what he’s monitoring.  I think they’re contraries coming into the city!”

“At this point, Jack, I don’t even want to know what contraries are.  Maybe later.  This is just a little too illegal for me at this point,” David stood and picked up the key-drive off his acquaintance’s desk.

“Hey yeah, don’t forget to do it on your work computer, not your laptop.”

“Do I look like an idiot to you?”

“Yes, actually.”

David rolled his eyes at Jack and headed towards Jack’s back door, not wanting to take the slightly malfunctional trans pad.  Pushing aside the pile of unclean laundry by the door, David went out into the elevator and began walking to the train station.  The sun had almost set, and each skyscraper cast a shadow that stretched for several blocks.  The nightclubs were beginning to light up.  David was glad that he had not brought his wallet as he witnessed a pickpocket duck behind a dumpster and admire his new loot.  He turned down an alley as a shortcut.

A girl with reddish brown hair ran past him with a box in her hands.  She stopped and looked at the box, then heard him behind her.  She was startled and attempted to act as if she hadn’t stolen the box.

“It’s ok,” David said as he kept on his way. “I’m not gonna report you to the police.  I don’t even care what’s in the box.  I’m just going to the train station.”

A look of confusion crossed her face and she set the box on the ground.  She was gone up a fire escape as quickly as she had come.

David reached his home several hours after dark.  He pulled the key-drive out of his pocket and turned it over in his hand.  The cat rubbed up against his leg as he set the key-drive on the end table.

Ding-a-ling. Ding-a-ling.  A look of confusion crossed David’s face as he reached for the phone.  “Hello. David Varhaft speaking.  Jack? What the… The wrong one? You can’t be serious.  Oh, god no.  Alright, I’ll check it out.  Damn you, Jack.”

David set the phone back on the charger and sat on the couch.  He opened his laptop and grabbed the key drive.  He opened it up and pushed it into an open slot.

The files opened automatically on his laptop and David could tell right away that it wasn’t right.  He let out a long string of colorful metaphors.  The files were coded so that David couldn’t tell what they were, but he knew that he had to get them off his system as soon as possible.  He deleted his computer’s access off the key-drive and deleted the files and their download patterns off his laptop.  He could only hope that the world government’s monitoring system hadn’t seen anything they didn’t like and already traced it to him.

“David Varhaft has been found guilty of a mild offense against The World Government and is hereby sentenced to a minimum of a year’s service in the Resource Corps Correctional Program.   After his service, he will be required to resign from his position in The World Bureau of Human Affairs and, if he does not re-enlist in the Resource Corps, find work in the private sector.”  The Judge’s gavel fell and David was escorted out of the courtroom.

David could barely believe it.  One mistake, and his entire career was over.  It was almost like a bad dream it was so unreal.  He was lined up with the rest of the mild offense prisoners to get on the bus to the Resource Corps farm.  Guards and barbed wire surrounded them.  He had planned it all out, but somehow he had messed it up.  The plan had been simple, imitate a co-worker and get her fired or at least in trouble so that when the promotion he wanted opened up, he would be the most qualified candidate.

They loaded up on a huge armored bus with a machine gun mounted on the top and guards in body armor.  The Sergeant addressed the prisoners as they were directed to their seats.  “You will now be taken to RCCP farm 19.  Their primary resource is accelerated growth corn and you will each be there through at least two seasons.  There will be a general information briefing for you once you get there.”  David took a seat next to a mousy guy who was shaking.

A loudmouth behind David addressed the guard, “Why all the security?  Isn’t it kind of expensive to use this high security for mild offense prisoners?”

The guards laughed.  Not a good laugh; but an eerie, almost nervous laugh.   The Sergeant smirked at him, “We’re not worried about you getting out, we’re worried about what might try to get in.  The government doesn’t have enough invested in you to care whether or not you escape, but they do care whether or not you get eaten.”

The mousy man next to David squeaked and whispered under his breath, “We’re dead, I know it.”  Then he turned to David, “Did you know there was a prisoner bus accident last month?  They said there were rabid elephants attacking the busses.”

“Rabid elephants?  That’s ridiculous.”

“No, of course you wouldn’t know, the government doesn’t put things like that in the news or else the public would shut down their science experiments.  You need to keep your eyes open.  You think that we’re free?  The government has so many secrets… they know I know, that’s why they’re sending us out into the wilderness so that their secrets die with us.”

David blinked in disbelief and then turned forward to discontinue the conversation.  This guy was obviously insane.  The huge engine on the bus fired up and they jolted out of the courthouse bus terminal.  They soon left the city and headed out over the hills, through the forest, and out onto the vast plains.  Wild prairie growth extended to the horizon.  Despite the uniformity of the view, David was hypnotized by the seemingly infinite nothingness.  Eventually, it was again dotted by trees which slowly grew into small forests and they began crossing bridges over creeks and dry cavities.  Wild animals popped their heads above the grass every once in a while.

“Dust cloud ahead, over,” came over the walkie-talkie.

“What does it look like? Over,” said the driver.

“Buffalo stampede headed our way,” replied the lookout on top.  “Should I open fire on approach?  Over.”

“No, hold your fire.  We’ll stop and wait it out.  They should go around unless they’re provoked.  Over.”

“Roger that, over and out.”

The bus slowed to a stop just in front of a bridge.  On the other side of the river was a stand of trees to one side of the road and then a large dust cloud enveloped the plain on the other side.  The dust cloud grew larger as the herd thundered closer.  They crashed across the bridge and overflowed into the stream, swimming across as well.  The sound of their hooves shook the bus as they streamed past, snorting and stomping.  They were so close, David could see the fear in their eyes.  The mousy guy next to him muttered, “We’re dead.  The monsters are coming.  We’re gonna die. Oh God, save me, I’m dead.”

Then shouts of panic came from on top of the bus, but the words were incomprehensible through the static of the walkie-talkies.  The machine gun spit bullets over the roar of the stampede.

“Hold your fire!” the driver shouted into the walkie to no avail.

A wild trumpet rang above the sound of hooves.  The stampede was beginning to dwindle, but apparently something else was coming.  Several of the prisoners sprang to their feet and began shouting, panic in their voices.  The guards shouted for them to sit down.

Suddenly, the machine gun stopped firing and a hair-raising scream came from outside the bus.  The last of the buffalo, jumping and snorting in panic, tore past the bus.  David couldn’t quite tell what was going on.  Then, angry red eyes appeared at the window, tusks crashed through, and shattered glass flew into the bus.

It was huge, much larger than a normal elephant should have been.  It’s tusks were long and curled, with blood dripping off them.  It turned and rammed the bus--the whole thing shook and tilted at a crazy angle.  When the bus crashed back onto the ground, a large man stumbled and toppled onto David.  Some of the prisoners jumped through the shattered windows, but the guards ignored them and opened fire on the monstrous creature trumpeting its dominance to the intruding metal beast.  After goring the escaping prisoners, the mammoth of an elephant rammed the bus again and the driver got the engine fired back up.  He gunned the engine to take off over the bridge and get away, but the elephant somehow got his tusks under the bus and with a great thrust flipped it over on its side.  David clung to the seat to avoid smashing into the ground.  He closed his eyes as glass flew up into the bus.  The bus shook and groaned as the elephant smashed it one last time.  It teetered and rocked, then toppled over the edge of the bridge.

Everything floated around like they were in space; glass, guards, prisoners.  Then the weightlessness ended with a jolt and water began filling the bus, splashing and bubbling around.  Someone scrambled on top of David to get out and pushed him under the water.  Others were trapped in their seats under the water.  David got his head back over the water and reached for the side of the bus that was hanging over his head.  Glass cut into his hands as he pulled himself up out of the sinking bus.

“Help me!” cried the paranoid guy who had actually been right about the rabid elephants.  David reached down over the edge and grabbed his outstretched hand.

“Hurry up, we’ve got to get to shore before this thing sinks or the elephant comes back,” David said as he pulled the man out of the water.  They scrambled across the bus and into the river.  They swam to the shore and ended up under the bridge with one of the guards.

“Now what do we do?” David asked the guard.

“I guess we wait.  Headquarters monitors all prisoner transport.  They should be sending a rescue vehicle that should be here within three hours.  We need to wait here for them to find us,” the guard replied shakily.  David had trouble believing that the guard was entirely sure a transport would come.

“They’re not coming,” began the mousy guy.  “They want their secrets…”

“Stop it!” David shouted.  “That’s not helping anything!  The government is not trying to kill us.”

Then David noticed that the forest was eerily quiet.  The three of them stood on the shore as the bus burbled in the water.  The mammoth was off in the distance on the other side of the river, walking calmly away.  It was just odd.

A sharp roar and a gurgled cry came from behind.  David turned just in time to have blood spurt in his face straight from the guard’s slashed neck.  A large, tawny, lion-like beast tossed the body to the ground.  Her claws were extended and her long fangs dripped with blood.  Her deadly green eyes looked between David and the other prisoner, as if she couldn’t decide which to kill first.

“Run! Saber-tooth tiger!” squealed the mousy guy as he jumped toward the bank.  David ducked and the tiger sprang forward.  Horrible screams came from the underbrush as the large cat tried to catch her fleeing mouse.  David ran the opposite direction, scrambling into the trees.  Adrenaline pumped through his veins as he jumped through bushes and pushed his way through thorny vines.

Soon he could no longer hear any of the chaos he had just left.  He slowed down and assessed the situation.  He was bleeding, tired, dirty, lost, and scared.  Strange cries came from the trees around him, from bugs or maybe birds.  Water from an earlier rain dripped from the thick foliage around him.  He felt as if he had just run through the pits of hell and survived.  At least he had survived.

He eventually came upon a small clearing in which was an abandoned cabin from long ago when people lived outside of the city.  He knew he couldn’t go back there.  Even if he wasn’t completely lost he wouldn’t know how to explain what had happened.  He didn’t even know what they would do to him.  If he had thought he would be in this situation a year ago, he would have said that obviously the government would give him his freedom as pain and suffering compensation for the accident.  He wasn’t so sure anymore.

The cabin leaned and had vines growing up one side.  It looked as if the door was now functioning as a load-bearing wall and opening it would mean collapse.  He found a hole where beams had separated from the stone chimney and he crawled through into the dark interior.  Since the sun was setting, this would be as good a place as any to spend the night.  That would be a good plan for now, he thought, continue surviving.

“What are you doing here?”

David turned to see a sharp stone spear point inches from his nose.  From the way its wielder had said “you” it seemed as if they had met before, but she stood in the shadows so that he could not see her face.

“Never mind,” she continued.  “You must have been on the prisoner transport.  We’ve had them crash around here before, but the passengers don’t survive.”

“How do you know about the prisoner transport?” David asked.

“You have to be observant around here,” she stepped into the light.  It was the girl he had seen in the alley with the box all those months ago.  “I think I can convince them to help you out if you want.  We can take you back to the city.”

He looked at her slight form and beautiful face.  He saw a strange kindness in her face that he had never seen before, and he believed for the first time ever that she would help him without asking anything in return.

“Can I stay?”

“What?”

“Can I stay?” David repeated.  “I want to stay with you.”

“You don’t want to go back to the city?” the same look of confusion that he had seen in the city crossed her face again.

“Not really.”

“Well, that will take a little more convincing, but I think I can convince the tribe to take you.  Follow me.”  She turned to leave the abandoned building, but then stopped.  “So, what’s your name?”

“David Varhaft.  Call me David.”

            “Alright David, I’m Cate.  Welcome to the wild.”

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