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Rows of elevators gave way to a kind of crossroads where people selected a direction and took the appropriate Walkway out of the building. We wound through the crowd, heading for the south side of the city at a fast pace.
A group of Wardens, dressed in sleek grey uniforms, marched through the crush of bodies and we hastily moved aside to allow them access to their separate walking lane.
The Wardens were appointed to patrol the city and maintain the peace. The city was under their constant surveillance, they used millions of CCTV cameras and microphones to keep an eye on us. Privacy was a concept that didn't really have much meaning within The Wall.
Harbour city was a rabbit warren of skyscrapers interconnected by huge glass Walkways. The long tubes jutted out of each building on the one hundred and fiftieth floor. They connected all of the buildings within the city and once you were in one, you moved fast or got knocked aside.
The Wardens were assigned their own lane to allow them quick, unrestricted travel throughout the city. Sometimes VIPs used the Warden lanes too but for the general population, it was all about leg power and elbows.
I could never resist sparing a few moments to gaze out through the reinforced glass and I tipped my head back as we walked, trusting Taylor to catch me if I fell. The view was really quite beautiful, especially at night. The twinkling brilliance of the city always took my breath away and the sheer scope of it was humbling in its enormity.
Someone shoved me aside and I bit my tongue to cut off a curse as I spied the bottle green uniform of the culprit. The Harvesters pushed their way between the crowd. There were six of them in all and they each held the sa
me superior, arrogant look on their faces.
Dickwads..
“I would consider a job in hydroponics if I didn't think I’d end up like one of those stuck up douchebags," I muttered.
Taylor laughed appreciatively as the Harvesters turned off of the Walkway and headed for a hydroponics building. They did brilliant work and were rewarded with great apartments and the general respect and adoration of the public for providing the city with all the food we needed to survive. It was just a shame it tended to go to their heads and they were all pretentious assholes.
"You could just work in produce. It's almost the same," Taylor suggested as we passed an exit for a produce building. The queue outside was already long despite it being early.
"Yeah, because distributing food is exactly like helping to create it." I shook my head and upped my speed as the crowd thinned slightly.
Taylor smirked at me as his gaze skimmed the crowd. “At least you’d get to cut the queue and maybe even grab the odd snack on the sly.”
“I should have known you were thinking with your stomach,” I teased and Taylor shrugged like that was obvious.
The skyscrapers within the city were allocated for various purposes; population buildings for housing, school buildings raised the new generations to be productive members of society, health and wellbeing buildings held gyms so that people could exercise, and so on. We passed by many of them on our way to the cable cars and people swarmed on and off of the Walkways at the various exits.
It took us forty minutes of switching Walkways and passing through buildings to reach the edge of the city at the south side and enter the skyscraper designated for 'Cable cars and Wall maintenance'. We joined the back of a line and waited for a retinal scanner to register our arrival. I huffed impatiently and Taylor raised an eyebrow at me.
“What?" he asked.
"I just hate having to queue all the time," I sighed. Taylor shook his head at me, he never found the city rules as irritating as I did.
I stepped forward and leaned into the scanner. A red light blinded me momentarily and the door slid open to admit me. We moved into a wide, open hall where the other members of the expedition were already gathered and joined the back of the large group who were all converging around a small, balding man.
Professor Delo was one of the city Guardians, the scientific leader for Harbour City. He was in charge of any expeditions outside of The Wall. Not that there were many. He was also the leading expert on the contamination and its effects so was responsible for keeping the city contagion-free. It was a job he took very seriously and presumably he did it well seeing as we were all still alive. He climbed up onto something to see over the crowd, commanding the attention of the room as he laid out our objective.
"We are doing vital research for the continued prosperity of our great city," he called out in a rather wobbly voice. "But it is imperative that you all remain safe. Stay within your groups and maintain radio contact. If you think there is a reason to fear anything at all then check back with us before proceeding. If you or your equipment are compromised, your first concern is for the population. We can't risk any contamination entering the city."
A chill ran down my spine. In all the excitement about going outside The Wall for the first time, I had forgotten about the reasons for staying in. My mind brought up images of the contaminated people who used to live out there and I pushed them aside with a shudder. There was nothing left alive outside anymore. That was one thing the Guardians were sure of.
“You can collect your biohazard suits from the lovely gentleman to my left and sign yourselves in with the less lovely gentleman to my right. We will be leaving within the hour." As he finished speaking, Professor Delo dropped down into the surrounding bodies and was quickly swallowed by the crowd.
"Striving forward together!" he called out from the depths of the group as an afterthought.
"For the good of the population," everyone chanted back instantly.
“So, kids are you ready to head into the big outdoors?" Taylor's dad, Artie appeared behind us and laid a hand on each of our shoulders. He was a tall man, thick with muscles which had softened a little over the years. His head was topped with more full, black hair than a man his age deserved and a matching moustache to round it all off. He was also one of my favourite people in the whole world.
Taylor was him reborn minus the moustache and with the lighter hair he took from his mom.
"Sure Dad. I'm gonna jump in line for the biohazard suits. I don't wanna end up with a gross one or something," Taylor said as he moved away and disappeared into the crowd to the left of the room.
“Thanks for getting me in on this Artie,” I said with a wide grin. I had the distinct feeling that I must have looked as though I was about to burst with excitement.
