Revival
“This man must be remembered”, was all that was said as the flier was passed to me. I took it and read it, as did 30 or so other citizens in the dark basement room.
NEW FREE PRESS 19th February 2033
Steven Manning, last old worlder, aged 74, died today in his room at the City security block. Mr Manning had been ill for some time with chest troubles. Officials say that he died in his sleep.
Mr Manning was one of only two old worlders spared in the cleansing of 2007. The Head Citizens believed a living example of the violent past should be preserved to study in the next generation.
In his final years he taught Ancient History at …
I looked up from the flier in my hand. I glanced around the room and saw bewildered expressions mirrored on a few faces. They obviously couldn’t see the relevance of the old fart from education passing away either.
“That old fart”, began the man, now back at the front of the room, “must be remembered.”
The man at the front of the room looked over the crowd, briefly making eye contact with everyone. He continued, “He was born of a mother and father … naturally. He didn’t have parts of his brain extracted or modified, he was the last of the old world. An old world that was a better place than we’re told it was. It wasn’t just wars and violence and hate. It was a world of natural beauty and wonder, and it still exists outside the walls. I’ve seen it.”
Now he had my attention.
“What?”
“Bullshit!”
“You’re a loony!”
“I’ve seen it”, he said again above the outcry.
“Have you ever wondered what is outside these walls? Did you ever see anyone come back from ‘correction school’? Have you ever wondered why we are all ‘moved’ when we reach thirty? All they have ever told us about the past is bullshit. Lies. They’ve only told us what they want us to know. The last 200 years was a lot better than we’ve been told.”
He was red in the face and he stopped to catch his breath, glaring at his audience.
“After the war of 2007, they killed anyone over 30 because they were blamed for starting the holocaust. It was selective genocide based on age, that left the youth in charge. They sealed themselves away behind these walls in a self-contained city and forgot about the outside. It was poisoned from radiation and fallout, so they shut it out. But now it’s beautiful again, and we’re still in here.”
I had wondered what was outside the city walls but had never been game to ask because I had an idea which might happen to me. Questions were definitely not encouraged.
Just as I was about to ask him how he’d seen it, somebody else asked my question. More than one in fact. It seemed like the whole room was talking at once. Asking. Shouting even. A few people were on their feet as they begged to know more. The man at the front of the room motioned us to silence and continued.
“The other week I accessed something on my terminal. It was a code. One word. I punched it up and got another word. When I re-entered it I got nothing. I couldn’t find it again. Not in any file – Communal Obligation, Computer Mathematics, Love Thy Neighbor, nothing. I lost it. So I went to see Steve Manning, the old fart from education. I asked him if he know what ‘JUDAS WATERGATE’ meant.”
I realised I was gripping the arms of my seat too tight and tried to relax a little. This guy seemed to have the answers to questions that had been in the back of my head for I don’t know how long.
“Steve Manning told me that Judas Iscariot was a traitor who betrayed a great man called Jesus Christ. It is a part of history that we’re not taught because it happened before 1800, the time when our knowledge of Ancient history starts. He told me that ‘Judas’ was to become synonymous with a betrayal. Betraying friends, betraying a confidence.”
The guy next to me raised his hand like a good pupil in one of the classrooms.
“What did he say the other part of the code meant?”
“Watergate. He said Watergate was a political scandal in another land that rocked the whole country. It was a huge affair. The Head Citizen was a cheat, a liar and a fraud. Manning said that Watergate means a fraud, a cover-up on a grand scale. I thanked the old man and left, starting to wonder what I had found.”
“I went away and thought about what the old worlder had told me. I fooled around on my terminal, and bingo!, I unlocked it. I found a report in the Head Citizens file called “Air Quality and Land Nutrition beyond the Walls”, complete with computer pictures of green land and trees. Basically it says that there is land outside the walls that can sustain human life, we can leave. We don’t have to live in here anymore.”
Stunned, I was absolutely shaken. It felt like all the blood had drained out of my head. I closed my mouth and looked around at the other people in the room. They all looked the same as I felt. This flew in the face of everything we had ever been told. In fact it was a completely alien concept. Life outside the walls?! Outrageous! But appealing at the same time. The possibility of a whole new existence. Waiting for us. Outside the walls.
I turned to the man at the front and asked, “So what can we do about it?”
the end