Chapter 14: Sector BZZ
After what felt like an eternity she heard Sammy whisper, “You okay?”
She whispered back, “Think so. I can’t see anything.”
“Give it a sec,” he said. She waited. A thin blue glow rose. Dim light fell from the giant screens like the sun’s after image. Naomi lay panting on a pile of doughy bodies.
“What’s that buzzing?” she whispered.
“Snoring,” whispered Sammy. Sure enough, Naomi recognized the raspy breathing sound. She looked at the white people lying on the floor around her. She whispered, “They’re asleep!”
“Yup,” he said, getting to his feet. He put his hands under Naomi’s armpits, hauling her to her feet so she stood uneasily on the back of a white person. He took her hand and they tiptoed to the edge of the bridge.
The horses walked around the room, making clipping noises with their hooves.
“They look nice,” Sammy whispered.
“Yeah.”
Naomi leaned over. The area around the hole in the floor was burned. Large cracks stretched to the farthest reaches of the room like a bloodshot eye.
“Smells like burnt paste,” Naomi said.
“Yeah. We cooked it,” he said. “Let’s go.”
They walked over the white people and through the doors.
A sign over the doors with the word “Exit” cast a bloody glow over the bodies. Naomi followed Sammy, being careful where she stepped. They came to a T in the corridor. The hallway on the right had more bodies. The one to the left was empty. The wall said:
Sector BZZ Sector ZZZ
Naomi whispered, “I can’t remember where I came from.”
Sammy whispered back. “Me neither.” He pointed. “Let’s go left.”
Naomi looked at the logjam of bodies on the right. Though she didn’t want to deal with them anymore, she was certain they led to a place they hadn’t yet been.
“We go right,” she said.
Sammy screwed up his mouth as though to protest, then sighed. “Okay.”
Naomi added, “You go first.”
Everything was lit in the red glow of the “Exit” signs.
They followed the bodies around corners and turns, down flights of stairs, and into endless corridors. It was easier to walk right on the bodies than around them. Every time Naomi took a step she felt doughy skin under her foot. The people were breathing and the hallways were filled with dull snores.
Finally they reached a door propped open by the bodies of sleeping white people.
The room on the other side of the door reminded Naomi of her school cafeteria. Tables and hundreds of chairs filled it. Some chairs held white people, slumped over like they had fallen asleep during class. Blue light fell through the windows that surrounded the room, the same dull light as in the turbine room. Again, she felt sorry for the white people.
“This is how they live,” Naomi whispered. She followed Sammy to the nearest table.
Sammy lifted a white person by its stringy hair. The person had a pair of glasses strapped to its face. A long tube was attached below the glasses and went into the person’s mouth. The other end of the tube went into the table. Sammy pulled the glasses off the person’s face and paste squirted out of the tube.
Naomi jumped back.
“Don’t worry,” Sammy said. He set the person’s head back on the table and picked up the glasses. “It’s a feeding tube.”
More paste slopped out of the tube.
“What’s it do?” Naomi asked.
Sammy turned the tube over and lifted the glasses to his eyes.
“There’s screens inside,” he said. He handed the glasses to her.
She looked into the glasses and saw two screens shining with a dim blue light.
“What do you think these are?” she asked.
“Don’t know for sure,” he said, “but I think it’s like a feedbag and a TV.”
“TV dinner.”
“Something like that,” said Sammy. “What I want to know is, what are they showing them?”
Naomi was reminded of the fake house. She thought of the room where white people watched other white people. “Lies,” she said, “these TVs are telling them lies.”
She let the tube fall.
She wiped her hand on Sammy’s overalls.
Most of the chairs were empty and Naomi had the feeling they were trespassing. The white people were asleep but once they woke, Naomi and Sammy would be in trouble.
“We need to get out of here,” Naomi said.
“Yeah,” Sammy agreed. “We best go.”
Suddenly the lights came back on. White people pulled themselves upright, the feeding tubes jutting from their mouths. Those on the floor rose. The windows flickered and lit up with TV snow. The people turned towards it as though listening.
Naomi tugged Sammy’s hand. “Come on,” she said, and they left.
The odor of sour paste filled the next room. The room was as big as a football field and bunk beds stretched into the distance like dense trees.
“It’s getting creepier and creepier,” said Naomi.
“It ain’t no picnic,” Sammy agreed.
“There’s like hundreds of beds,” Naomi said.
“Thousands,” Sammy corrected.
“Yeah, thousands.”
“Kind a reminds me of home,” Sammy said.
Naomi felt the floor vibrate below her feet.
“They’re coming back,” she said, feeling the quiver in her voice. Was she scared or was it the vibration?
The doors opened and white people entered.
“Here,” Sammy said, and pulled her behind one of the towering bunk beds.
“What’re they up to?” Naomi asked.
“I don’t suppose they’re still looking for us,” he said.
“They don’t act like it,” she said.
“Hope not,” Sammy admitted. “Seems too good to be true.”
Just as the words left his mouth a white person marched towards them. It bumped into Sammy’s shoulder. The white person raised its eyes, looking directly at him. It shuddered like a startled animal and the front of its pants darkened with liquid. Sammy gazed down at the puddle growing around his shoes. He and Naomi backed away. Naomi held her breath. She expected the person to scream. Once they got a couple yards from it, its face slackened like a day-old balloon. They stopped. It turned around, rejoining the others.
“That thing peed on itself,” Sammy whispered.
They continued towards the corner of the room.
“You okay?” Naomi asked.
“I’m not thinking about it.”
As they turned the corner, they were met with another wall filled with windows, and beyond the windows, another screen. Naomi was puzzled by what she saw; there was certainly no shortage of surprises here.