Ntshona (3 page)

“I don’t understand,” proclaimed a frightened, trembling Eve, “where could everyone have gone?”

“Not only that,” said Lon, “but why are there no bodies, blood or bullet casings?” they were carefully walking in the direction of one of the clothing outlets to examine the inside, “I can’t even see any bullet holes anywhere! How could they have cleaned up so quickly?”

The whole situation was difficult to comprehend, but Eve’s scientific mind began trying to understand the situation logically.

“Who were they anyway?” she asked, not knowing what suggestions to expect from Lon.

“I can only speculate,” he responded with uncertainty, “It could be terrorists, right?”

Eve began analysing how plausible a suggestion it was, but was quickly interrupted.

“Ah, I’ll call them!” interjected Lon, as he lifted his sleeve in order to power on his palm
screen. Nothing happened. “Fuck! I thought these were supposed to be completely waterproof! What about yours?”

Eve made the power on gesture for her palm screen, but it too gave no response. “This is really strange,” she was pondering the situation again, “I know we were both in the water for quite some time, but it shouldn’t have affected either of them”.

“I think we should get out of here, just to be safe,” said Lon, “I don’t think anyone else is still here”. He took one last look at their surroundings before they both left for the NGT platform, the only exit they were familiar with.

They reached the check-in console, which lit up as they approached.

“Should I…?” inquired Eve.

“Better not check in,” Lon answered, “I think we should jump the barrier, just in case”.

He leapt over the platform barrier first, then turned back to help Eve do the same.

As expected, nobody was on the platform. “We should take the first train that comes past,” stated Lon.

Eve agreed while trying to squeeze as much water out of her hair as possible with her hands.

They waited silently.
 

Chapter 3

The bright lights of Seal Island were visible against the inky black backdrop of the moonlit ocean.

The air was becoming cold, and there was a strong breeze blowing.

Several minutes passed by before lights at the platform edge began to flash red, and shortly after an NGT car pulled into the station. The doors opened and a flow of people disembarked, headed for a night out at the shopping centre where Lon and Eve had just been.

“We should tell those people what just happened,” suggested Eve, still with a shaken, sodden appearance.

“No,” said Lon, who was in the same state, “we should think it through before we tell anyone”.

They boarded the empty train and sat down facing the door they came through, their backs to the ocean view.

“Think what through?” asked Eve.

The NGT pulled away from the building and into the open sky, heading towards the centre of the metropolis.

In spite of the sky being cloudless, it was difficult to see the stars in this direction due to the intense light pollution laying a thick, illuminating layer over everything.

A window was open somewhere in the carriage letting in a cold stream of thin air.

The two lonesome friends were strangely calm considering what they had just been through. Perhaps it was the result of conditioning through the constant fear of being punished by the government for doing something deemed inappropriate.

“Firstly, we need to understand what we experienced,” said Lon, passively watching one of the visual displays on the opposite side of the carriage, “then we need to figure out why it happened”.

Eve was staring at her feet, her logical brain was calculating possibilities. “Do you think it had anything to do with the confrontation we were in?” she asked.

It seemed like a legitimate reason for there to have been police or security of some manner, but Lon was not entirely convinced.

“I can imagine all of us getting a beating from the police for it, but I don’t understand how it could have been a reason to attack everyone in the shopping centre”.

That was the simplest, most likely explanation shot down. For them at that moment there was only one other explanation.

“Terrorists,” said Lon, revisiting Eve’s original assumption from earlier on, “do you think they were terrorists?”

Eve, still staring at her wet feet, responded, “It’s possible, but what reasons did they have? And how did they get around security?”

Lon sighed deeply, thinking it futile to speculate further at that point. “They could have had any number of reasons. Maybe to make a point or something. We might just have to wait and see”. Something in the back of his mind, some sort of intuition, was telling him that they should lay low and avoid making themselves too apparent from that point on.

As the NGT train got closer to the city centre it began to fill up.

Lon and Eve certainly stood out from the other passengers due to their tousled appearance. They stayed silent to
discourage any more attention than they had already got at that point.

Eve spent most of the journey staring at her feet, but Lon’s attention was floating in between the view of the cityscape and the visual display opposite him, above the heads of some other passengers.

He gasped.

This unnerved the woman directly in front of him because it seemed like he was looking at her. It should have been an awkward moment, but he ignored it and quickly turned to Eve at his right side to quietly exclaim, “It’s on TV”.

She looked up sharply at the screen, where she immediately caught sight of a scene they were familiar with.

The surveillance footage from the shopping centre was being aired on the news with the title “Another mass disappearance in Ntshona”.

Her mouth fell open, she was fixated on the screen.

It was on the news. This was surely a good thing, as it would attract attention to the pair’s ordeal, and perhaps bring about a resolution.

Then she realised that it was being referred to as a ‘disappearance’.

There had recently been ongoing mass disappearances for some time now, and not once had the case been close to a resolution.

Now things started to make sense, but at the same time made no sense. What did make sense to them both was that they now knew for certain those disappearances were not paranormal related like the media often implied, which Eve, oddly for a scientist, had maintained the whole time. Furthermore, it helped them to realise that this wasn’t the first time that what they had been through had happened. However, it presented them with more things to question.

They continued to watch the footage on the screen, which was taken from different surveillance cameras throughout the shopping centre just before the incident had taken place.

Both Eve and Lon were paying close attention to the subtitles, “
…no evidence of what might have happened in the shopping centre, and all security surveillance equipment malfunctioned for unknown reasons
”.

The footage on the screen turned white, then the feed disappeared. The footage from the same instant was shown from multiple feeds.

“
It seems there is a flash in the footage immediately before the security feed ends. This early on we can only speculate as to what could have happened, as an initial investigation is not yet underway. We are still awaiting a statement from the police
”.

The two had forgotten about the brilliant flash that occurred before the bullets started flying. As this information was digested, even more questions arose.

“Now arriving at Central Station,” sounded the NGT computer.

“Come on,” said Lon quietly, “we’re getting off now”.

Eve was a little surprised, they hadn’t discussed their destination, and it seemed like too busy a place to stay off radar, yet Eve complied as she herself had no idea of what to do or where to go next.

They pushed themselves off the train amid the unmannerly shoving of other passengers alighting and boarding at the same time. They certainly received some annoyed looks from people they had accidentally wet, although it was fault of their own for being impatient.

The two walked across the platform as naturally as possible.

“We’ve come here because we need to go to my brother’s workshop,” stated Lon in a tone as calm and normal as he could.

“But,” Eve readily interjected, “you think we should lie a little low, right?”

“Yeah,” replied Lon.

“Well,” continued Eve, “how are we gonna leave the station? I need to scan my eyes”.

“
Shit!
” exclaimed Lon, “I completely forgot about that! My palm screen doesn’t work either”.

Thus Lon’s plan fell flat on its face; security always had a strong presence at the main station.

“We can’t get through without checking in,” sighed Lon, “I saw someone trying to fare dodge once; he jumped the barrier and tried to run, but he got absolutely nailed by security staff”.

Eve did not like the idea of being targeted by security. “Then maybe we should try at another station,” she suggested, “one where there are likely to be fewer people”.

“Like where?” asked Lon, becoming annoyed, “there aren’t any stations near here that would be empty at this time. The only stations I can think of are miles away, and it would take hours to walk back here”.

“Oh god,” Eve was starting to get very worried, “it won’t make a difference whether we check in or not, will it?” she was trying to reassure herself as well as Lon about the situation. “Seriously, we haven’t done anything illegal, have we? Well, you kicked a guy in the head, but they won’t know it was you because you never check in anywhere as yourself. And I’ve never done anything illegal, that the government know of, so I shouldn’t have to be afraid, right?”

Something was still nagging Lon, something still telling him to stay out of sight, however, “We have no choice either way. You might be right, but I was just trying to be careful”.

The two walked towards the nearest exit barrier and joined the queue. They waited for their turns to check out.

Eve was first.

“Please select form of check out registration,” sounded the console, to which she replied “Retina scan”.

“Acknowledged. Please step forwards and look directly at the sensor bar”.

Eve did as was asked, trying to act as though nothing was a problem.

The console scanned her eyes with its blue beam, “Retina scan complete. Identity acknowledged”.

She and Lon both sighed to release some tension. Everything seemed to be fine. Perhaps they were worried for no reason.

“Please enjoy your ride Mrs. Chen”.

Eve’s jaw dropped, and Lon tried hard to stop his face falling into his palm.

They had not expected the console to say that. It seemed as though the check-in console’s computer system was not programmed to check in at certain places and check out at others, but simply to check in then check out in sequence, regardless of whichever console was used on the NGT system.

Wide eyed, Lon quickly looked over his shoulder at the people in the queue behind him to see if anyone else had heard the console, but luckily most people seemed to be engrossed in their own worlds.

A second-long beep was emitted from the barrier and it lifted.

Eve stepped through trying to act as naturally as possible, although she was extremely worried. She waited at the other side for Lon.

He stepped forwards, knowing the same thing would happen. He had not checked into the NGT system for over three years using his retinas or his true identity.

“Please select form of check out registration,” sounded the console.

Lon gulped. “Retina scan”.

“Acknowledged. Please step forwards and look directly at the sensor bar”.

Lon stepped towards the console. He began to tremble. The blue laser beam appeared and scanned his eyes, but he blinked because he was not prepared.

“Please do not blink or close your eyes during the scan,” said the console.

Lon could feel sweat on his forehead.

“Scan will recommence,” the blue laser appeared across his eyes again, which this time he kept open. “Retina scan complete. Identity acknowledged. Please enjoy your ride Mr. Dres”.

Another second-long beep sounded from the barrier, which then opened.

Lon quickly stepped through and hoped nobody had noticed the blunder. He rejoined Eve, and the two of them, very vigilant of security officers, went for the nearest ground-level exit.

Lon and Eve were incredibly relieved as they exited the transport station.

They entered the city’s central plaza, a huge, open-area shopping and business district outlined by immensely tall buildings and other architectural wonders, ornamented with long strips of illuminated water pools down the centre with a series of descending steps leading to them, and filled with large crowds of people.

The sky was an illuminated shade of black, but there was plenty of artificial light available at street level.

The two walked to their right, following one flow of pedestrian traffic.

Several gigantic, salient advertising and broadcasting screens accentuated the ruling political party’s power with completely exclusive airtime for pushing propaganda to aid the upcoming national elections. The face of Oswald Lungisile, the Minister of Home Affairs, smiled down upon the citizenry in an almost mocking manner, and the echoes of his baritone voice dominated the background hum of people. His speech declared that the SARP would “continue to maintain our fair and just social systems,” and “stamp out corruption in all its forms”. Such a hateful figure, Lon thought. How long would they spout such strident lies?

“Where to now?” inquired Eve as they walked past a large, canopied outdoor café, taking in as much as possible the potent and bitter scent of roasting coffee beans.

“Chris’ workshop is in that building over there,” Lon raised a hand and pointed to one of the medium-height buildings far opposite them.

It would be quite a walk for them to get there, so they subsequently decided to pick up their pace. It was difficult for them to walk as a couple due to the abundance of slow strollers in their path, so they often had to separate to walk through and around groups of people.

To avoid the masses and to take a shortcut they exited the flow of people and walked down the steps towards the pools of water in the centre of the plaza. They intended to pass through the walkway between the two nearest pools, but they had to stop.

Near where they intended to shortcut were two policemen keeping an ever watchful eye on the public.

In fact, Lon and Eve noticed there were numerous police officers dotted about the plaza.

“Dammit, we have to be careful.” stated Lon.

He and Eve were much drier now than they had been, however they still looked out of place.

The police were known to be inquisitive, always ready to catch someone out or accuse them of something in order to lay on a fine or practise their front hand.