| Outsider By Ratt |
| In the smog of the oil burners, workers moved about, each one performing their tasks, each one working with mindless persistence. Supervisors moved among them, mindlessly making sure that the work was done. In the shadows stood a man, he wasn�t particularly unlike the others. His pasty white skin was stretched over his gaunt frame showing his ribs. His head was hung in the same defeated manner. But still, he was different, something in his eyes; he was an independent thinker, independent of the strangle hold the Machine had on them all. He was the outsider, if he had been seen he would have been killed. At this point he couldn�t afford to be noticed, quietly he moved along the shadows. He hadn�t always been like this; at one time he had been like everyone else. He had been known as Worker of Pump Number 34 in Subsection 12-678. Day on day he had worked the pump, endlessly moving the lever up and down, making the plunger move back and forth. It was his job to pump the toxic fluids that kept the Machine alive. Then one evening his sleep was disturbed, by something new, a dream. In his dream he had taken a wrong turn. He could not say why, maybe he had wanted to see what was down the tunnel on the right, even though this was a crime. He had wandered the endless corridors of the Machine, searching for something. In the end it had been a door, a mighty unmoving door. The monolithic portal loomed before him, he knew he had to open it. For hours he had pushed and pulled at the door, trying to move the mighty slab of metal aside. Finally in a desperate need to see what was beyond the door, even if he couldn�t get to it, he climbed the door blistering his hands, tearing off two fingernails. Finally he looked through the tiny window that seeped light through the door into the dark passageway. Beyond the door he saw what no servant of the Machine is supposed to see. A peaceful green lawn stretched to the horizon, magnificent creatures moved about, men of the sort he had never seen walked with their heads held high. This was where he wanted to be. The moment he awoke he ceased to be Worker of Pump 34 in Subsection 12-678, and became the Outsider, a criminal to be executed on sight. Now with shaking limbs he moved about the Machine, higher and higher. He had heard of portals in the highest reaches on the Machine through which one could escape into the air. How he longed to see the air, clear and blue, with fluffy clouds floating in the sky. Suddenly the passage he was in rang with alarms, a mechanical voice screamed to the workers, �Outsider in Passage 45 Subsection 45-871, apprehend and destroy. Repeat apprehend and destroy!� Outsider looked behind him as huge muscular workers came running around the corner. With terror in his heart he raced down the passage. Turning corners swiftly, always moving higher, climbing ladders, dumping waste down on his would be captors. Higher and higher he climbed. Out of nowhere he saw above him in the hall one of the huge clear tubes through which the toxic iridescent fluid that fed the Machine flowed. Grabbing blindly he lifted one of the pieces of scrap metal that lay strewn about the hall. Hurling it blindly at the tube as he ran beneath it. Skidding to a halt about a hundred meters from the tube he glanced behind him. He saw the toxic fluids flowing from the gash in the tube forming a pool of acidic death. One security worker came plunging forward into the spray. His flesh was torn back from his bones. The scent of burned and rotting flesh hit Outsider like a wave. Even though the toxin was in everything they ate or drank, they couldn�t deal with its corruption in such a concentrated level. Outsider turned breathlessly into the next corridor and collapsed onto the floor. Struggling to recover his breath he looked to the ceiling. It had a strange slanted look to it. A ladder led up the wall to the ceiling, ending at a heavy portal door. This must be it, the top level. |