Chapter 56:  04:05– REFLECTION BLACK & WHITE, BLACK & WHITE [7:55pm]

Seungho POV

My hands are shaking, trembling, quaking. They’re refusing to believe what I have just seen in the mirror, and to be fair, so does my mind.

I know Mir. No. Not Mir. Bang Cheolyong, that is his real name. Age 18, street kid of the ghettos. The boy who started it all.

I knew him.

From the very beginning I knew him.

Although was it he was started it all? Or was it me?

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< REFLECTION:BLACK >

Time log, Mir Age 18
5 years prior

Cheolyong was curled under some tarpaulin, hidden from the chaos outside. The material muted the sound of heavy footsteps and cocked guns outside, giving him brief shelter. But instead it magnified everything within that tiny space. He could hear his heart hammering right up against his rib cage, the sound amplified a thousand times over. He could feel the sweat slide down his temples, sticky and cold. Behind closed lids he could see the scene reply over and over.

His sister. Dead. His fault. Always his fault.

And he would dead soon enough.  

And the Factories would remain an enigma.  

Cheolyong jerked upwards, almost revealing his hiding place. The Factories. Of course! The Factories. The one place they would not think of searching for him. And he had the uniform and the access. Security would be lower because everyone was out searching for him…

Could he make it work?

Cheolyong fisted his hands. He had to make it work.

He had nothing left to lose. Everything to gain. Oh Hyo Jin would disapprove so badly if she knew what he had been up to but she was gone and this was all he had left to live for.

Cheolyong drew a deep breath, summoning his courage and drive, and then he slipped one hand out from underneath the tarpaulin. Sound floods his senses again and he listened carefully for the tell-tale sound of boots or guns clicking against leather holsters. There was neither. So he swallowed once and then darted out. He was blinded for a second by the bright lights of the afternoon sun but then he slipped into the shadows and once again it was all safe.

< / REFLECTION:BLACK >

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< REFLECTION:WHITE >

Time log, Seungho Age 21
5 years prior

Seungho threw a fist down at his keyboard, a mixture of frustration and desperation culminating. He may have saved that kid from being outright eliminated there and then – and he did not regret that – but now he had lost his eyes and he needed another one, pronto.

There. He located another camera that was speeding straight for the location where the first camera had gone down. Once it arrived there it slowed, patrolling back and forth, sweeping the area with its other sister cameras that had gathered. Slowly they built a net, trying to spy their target within.

But Bang Cheolyong was smart. He either avoided the camera, or if caught slipped out before it could register on the system.

Seungho gathered a variety of cameras, pulling up their images to his left so that together they built a direct map of the streets. This he paired with the System map to his right, a black and white netted thing that showed the main roads and snapshots taken last week. It however was nothing compared to the security camera images that showed a real time view of what was happening.

Seungho manually controlled which cameras he viewed, switching over quickly as Cheolyong moved across the city. One moment he was sliding down a street and slipping under a wall just as a slew of enforcers came around the corner. Another twist and a ledge and he slipped right by a camera that flew overhead, its lens swivelling erratically.

It wasn’t just luck, all the avoidance. It was a lot of skill as well. Quick wits and exceptional knowledge of the area. At one point he did run into an enforcer who pointed and yelled and took chase, but Cheolyong quickly slid past him and bolted over a wall, making full use of his wiry frame and lithe strength that the enforcer had none of. Seungho watched as the enforcer cursed colourfully after Cheolyong’s vanishing figure.

Now and then Cheolyong had to make diversions, a path to the left that too him closer to the edges, or a fork to the right that would make him do a detour but he would always double back. Seungho could see him pause from time to time to consider where he was.

Seungho began to see the pattern. He was heading in to the Factories and Seungho had no clue why.

“What do you want with it?” Seungho whispered, his voice tight and harsh. “Why are you so desperate to get in there?”

Of course there was no answer. Seungho could see Cheolyong but this was a one way mirror and Cheolyong had no clue of the direct link he possessed to the man three levels up. Seungho sat there, teeth clenched and knuckles white as he watched Bang Cheolyong make his valiant way closer. He had never felt more frustrated.

< / REFLECTION:WHITE >

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< REFLECTION:BLACK >

Time log, Mir Age 18
5 years prior

There it was: the walls, tall and imposing. And somehow he was going to get through them. Now everything could go wrong here. They could have realized that Cheolyong had indeed managed to steal uniform and have configured the system to alert them if the same uniform was used for re-entry. Or they could have forced the system into outright lockdown, allowing only the exit of enforcers and not the re-entry. A thousand different ways it could go wrong and Cheolyong had no time to think any more as the static of a radio sounded.

He strode forwards to the wall and a panel slid to one side to reveal a smooth blue screen. He tugged the brim of the hat he had snatched from somewhere down low, and when the camera shot out blue authorization light, Cheolyong proffered his right shoulder where all the identification tags were sewn. The camera scanned the lights up and then down, painstakingly slow. Cheolyong had to bite his lips and force himself to keep still and not look out of place.

Then the lights vanished, and for half a second there was a terrible torturous moment where Cheolyong could already hear the sirens go off and see the floodlights pick him out on the streets.

But that was all his imagination, and instead there was a gentle computerized beep.

AUTHORIZATION GRANTED. ENFORCER LEE SUNGMIN. STATUS: ROOKIE. ENTRY PERMITTED

The words scrawled over the screen in large black letters and a part of Cheolyong almost collapsed with relief. He was in.

The computer panel slid back Force would have never worked here. and next to it a doorway opened, blocks of the wall smoothly sliding out of the way. Except for a bomb, Cheolyong thought and swallowed hard. And even then that had only gotten them so far.

The space beyond the entrance was dark and unfathomable, and Cheolyong was half afraid to take a step in. But time was ticking and here was the opportunity he had been working on for the past three years.

For noona, he said to himself like a mantra and strode forwards.

< / REFLECTION:BLACK >

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< REFLECTION:WHITE >

Time log, Seungho Age 21
5 years prior

Seungho didn’t dare to breathe. His left screen was completely black, but he wasn’t sure if it was because he’d lost connection with the sole camera he had managed to sneak in with Cheolyong or if because it was simply too dark in the hallways of the outermost factory walls.

Seungho gripped the edge of his desk tightly, holding, hoping.

One.

Two.

Three-

A flicker of white, and starbursts. He could make out legs and the crumpled edges of a uniform and then a whole world spread out in front of him. Seungho righted the camera and then it all came into view. The world inside the fourth factory wall.

It was a bustle of activity, both human and non-human. Scores of enforcers stomped back and forth, their heavy boots sounding against the tiled floors. Computers lined the walls with information scrawling up and down in white against the grey. On one there was a map layout of the wall – Seungho took a screenshot of that. On another was a list of enforcers who had recently re-entered the base. Song Changmin. Jung Jihoon. Lee Sungmin, it read.  Another screen had updates which quickly changed, the words switching in and out smoothly. There was the weather described, the number of enforcers in base, the general news of the day. And then the information was wiped out and an image of a ragged boy appeared on the screen, tall and gangly and with a haunted look in his eyes. Bang Cheolyong, it said in capitals that overlaid the image.

Both Seungho and Cheolyong gave a start as a voice came on the overhead PR system. “Currently target Bang Cheolyong is still at large. All enforcers free of obligations are to join the search for the target. I repeat, all enforcers free of obligations are to join the search for target. Over.”

Seungho watched as Cheolyong stiffened and then loosened. It looked like a forced action. He quickly joined the crowd, slipping in and moving through, trying his best not to gawk at the extent of the towering ceilings or swathes of technology that was commonly found in the Peaks, but surely a rarity in the Ghettos. 

What the inner walls made up for height was cut back by length. Seungho could see that above and below there were half a dozen other floors with more enforcers and computer screens. It was built this way because the actual length of the wall was much shorter, what with having to accommodate for three other walls within the space of the Factories.

The textbook description of the four walls was as thus. The fourth was the Ghetto enforcer’s headquarters. There were Enforcer HQ branches on the Mid-levels and Peaks as well, but the Ghetto HQ was the largest by far, having to deal with the Ghetto citizens and the maintenance and protection of the inner walls.

The third wall was where labourers took the orders given by the Peak admins and created the goods needed by the population of all three levels. It was the largest of all the walls, containing the hydroponics labs, purification and filtration pipes, physical goods assembly lines and more. Labourers had to go through heavy Enforcer security at the fourth wall daily. They would then spend anything up of fourteen hours working in their allocated jobs and stumble out wearily at the end, back through security to double check nothing had been stolen or that the workers were not slacking off. Then it was bed and waking up several hours later to restart the cycle of producing food, water and goods.

It was in the second wall that these goods were packaged and prepared for redistribution back up the spine. Fewer workers were required here as machinery did most of the work. Humans were only required to enter orders and oversee the process.

These goods were then shipped to the first wall that encircled the Spine. The Spine was a pipe that connected all three levels, allowing for the transport of goods in the form of digital data. Physical objects were broken down into binary and sent up to the Mid-levels or Peaks where they were then turned back into tangible goods and re-distributed by hand. Humans too could be broken down, allowing them to move between the levels, but it was a much more delicate process and only those with authorization levels high enough were allowed to do so. This was mostly exclusive to enforcers who had to be relocated or senior Peak admin. Seungho had never had the opportunity to see the Spine, let alone travel by it, though his father had had the honour and had described it as a bright white portal. Touching it, he had said, was like touching live electricity. It shocked you but it was so quick that it only hurt for a second. Though the pain was brief, his father had said he would rather never use it again.

Four walls, each with their own purpose. Simple right? Except that Seungho knew for a fact that that was not everything. There was plenty of information detailing what went on in the fourth, third and second walls, progress reports that racked up in the Archives. However there was almost nothing on what happened in the first wall. Surely a wall of that size – not as big as the other three but still sizable – could not just be for transportation means.

Seungho had long had suspicions, and past experience had told him that his suspicions tended to be spot on. So here he sat, hands gripping the table top tightly as Cheolyong cautiously proceeded across the expanse of the fourth wall, ready to prove his doubts correct.

Cheolyong arrived at the other end of the wall where he stopped and stared at the panel that slide aside obligingly. He was hesitating and Seungho wondered if it was because he was unsure if he could get through. Seungho analysed the patterns on his sleeve. From his time in the security department he knew that those badge patterns indicated a rookie status. It may have been enough to get into the fourth wall, but would it suffice for the third?

Cheolyang took a deep breath and stepped forwards, brandishing his patterns to the camera boldly. There was half a heartbeat, and then the door slid open.  Both Seungho and Cheolyong exhaled with relief and then Cheolyong was moving onwards.

Seungho leaned back in his chair, one hand running through his hair. This Bang Cheolyong was far bolder than he had expected. If it had been Seungho in the very position that Cheolyong was in, Seungho doubted he would have been as fearless. Or reckless. Whatever. It got him in and Seungho could not complain.

There was another long tunnel that Cheolyong had to proceed along and the camera went dark again. But then doors slid open and the sight of the third wall greeted Seungho.

It was enormous, cavernous in appearance. Cheolyong walked over to the railing and gripped it tightly. Seungho moved the camera over and he too took a sharp breath. The floor dropped below them alarmingly, giving way to dozens of different walkways and conveyer belts and levels. They were all sectored off carefully and when Seungho squinted he could see the glint of translucent glass that segregated off the different areas.

To the northeast there was an area swarmed by sheer greenness. Plants grew in orderly fashion, held suspended over long channels of water. Labourers walked back and forth, checking and double checking the plant growth and monitoring levels on large computer screens on the walls. Seungho was beginning to realize that not only was there a divide between the Peaks, Mid-levels and the Ghettos, but also within the Ghettos. There were people like Cheolyong and his sister who had never so much seen a computer before and were only managing by the sheer intuitiveness of the technology. Then there were the labourers who though had to work long, tiring hours, actually knew how to process technology and were probably fed well and offered decent sleeping quarters. Enforcers of course had the best, luxurious but simple rooms in the Enforcer annex just a short distance away from the fourth wall. It was said that anyone who joined up with the Enforcers sold their soul but received luxury beyond compare. It wouldn’t do after all for the Government to have soldiers who were not motivated.

Cheolyong navigated the third wall, keeping close to the wall. It would be too easy to get lost in the maze like network of the different levels and sub sections. However his actions must have looked suspicious because one of the patrolling enforcers stopped him.

“What are you doing here rookie?” the enforcer barked, eyeing his patterns suspiciously. “Should you not be out searching for the target?”

Cheolyong swallowed hard and Seungho mirrored his action. He could only hope that the enforcer had not seen the poster of Cheolyong plastered all over the screen. That, or the uniform was enough of a disguise.

“I had orders sir,” Cheolyong said, his voice clear, but it trembled towards the end.

The enforcer raised an eyebrow but either didn’t care, or put it down to nervousness when faced against rank. “And that is?”

Cheolyong hesitated. Seungho could see it. The enforcer could see it.

Then, “Ah, rookie, are you here to help ship the body?”

The what?

Another enforcer strode up. The other enforcer quickly saluted the newcomer, and Cheolyong followed, lagging a step behind.

“Body? What body?” the first enforcer asked, sounding slightly suspicious.

The second enforcer didn’t seem to care. He looked tired and in dire need of a good night’s sleep. “There was gunfire outside the walls. It seems to have resulted in one casualty and it needs to be taken to the inner walls for processing. They’re not permitting the 24 days post-death, so it needs to be physically handled.”

“Ah,” the first enforcer said, a look of understanding and reassurance spreading over his face. He looked pleased that it wasn’t him who had to deal with it. “I’m glad to see they’re putting our rookies to good use. Better to have you here than running around outside for nothing.” He finished this with a wink that had Seungho recoiling from.

“Um, where is the body?” Cheolyong said nervously. He didn’t look very enamoured with this enforcer either.  

“Other there,” the second enforcer waved with a yawn. Cheolyong turned in the direction of his finger and spied a long silver trolley with black cloth spread over the top. Seungho swallowed hard as he made out the curves of what looked like a woman. Surely it wasn’t…

“Go ahead,” the second enforcer said dismissively and turned away, starting up a casual conversation with the first enforcer.

Cheolyong took hesitant steps forwards. His hands were shaking. Seungho could see that. And he could understand why. But it was too dangerous for Cheolyong to remove the cloth here, so he numbly took the railing of the trolley between stiff hands and pushed it towards the door at the end of the hallway. The panel slid open, beeping for authorization, and Cheolyong proffered the badges on his shoulder.

ENTRY REFUSED. INSUFFICIENT AUTHORIZATION. PLEASE TRY AGAIN. the panel beeped in a monotonous, computerized tone.  

Cheolyong turned, panic on his face. “Sir,” he called out hesitantly. Was that what enforcers called their superiors? It seemed to because the second enforcer turned, craning his neck.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“It says I have insufficient authorization,” Cheolyong explained, his hands flitting up and down and Seungho wondered if the game was up.

“Ah, oh rookie right,” the second enforcer muttered. He waved at Cheolyong to come back and Cheolyong did so in tiny, tottering steps. “Here,” the enforcer said, waving a hand over the patterns on Cheolyong’s uniform. A screen appeared in thin air and the enforcer typed in something quickly. When he banished the screen, a new line appeared on Cheolyong’s uniform. “There,” he said. “Temporary access to the inner walls for 24 hours. It should be sufficient. Now go on,” he said and waved Cheolyong away.

Heart hammering Seungho watched as Cheolyong returned to the trolley and the wall. This time it admitted him with ease and Cheolyong pushed the trolley through another dark tunnel. There, he stopped.

“Screen,” Cheolyong whispered in a tiny voice and a screen lit up, illuminating the tunnel with a ghostly blue-white colour. He was learning how to use his uniform and the privileges that came with it. Seungho spied the computer chip at the uniform’s shoulder, just to the right of the patterns. That must have been how the enforcer had managed to grant authorization at the flick of a hand. Everything here in the enforcers based was technology driven. Seungho wondered how they would function if it all crashed.

But then Cheolyong moved again, bringing Seungho’s attention back to the screen. He watched as Cheolyong reached forwards and hooked one hand under the sheet, hesitating for a moment, and then yanking it back. And there, underneath the sheets, still coated in blood and eyes closed, was his sister.

Cheolyong broke out into choked sobs and Seungho turned away. As curious as he was as to what lay beyond the third wall, this was a moment for Cheolyong alone and even he could not intrude on that.

< / REFLECTION:WHITE >

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< REFLECTION:BLACK >

Time log, Mir Age 18
5 years prior

Everything had been so sudden before that Cheolyong hadn’t the time to grieve, but now here was sister, on a cold steel trolley and with a sheet covering her body, dead. Cheolyong felt the grief build up inside him, waves and waves that tugged at him.

He felt his knees buckle and he gripped the edge of the trolley to stop himself from crumpling outright. “Noona,” he sobbed and buried his face in the sheets. He reached out with one tentative hand and her cheeks were cold as ice, stiff as cardboard. He couldn’t bear to look at her any longer and so he pulled the sheets back up, covering her again.

Surprisingly there were no tears. Just dry sobs that he let rack his body until they were exhausted.

“I’m sorry noona,” he whispered in a cracked voice. “I’m sorry. So, so sorry.”

He wanted to stay here forever, bathed in the soothing darkness of the tunnel and apologize to Hyo Jin until he could speak no longer. But time was running short and anyone could come into the tunnel at any moment. So he controlled the grief, reeling it back in like a line and coiling it up tightly. He checked the sheets were smooth, his hands lingering a moment too long over her covered cheek. Only when he thought everything had been restored to normal, like the body had never been touched, only then did he turn off the computer screen, plunging the tunnel back into darkness.

The doors slid open at the end  and Cheolyong was greeted with the second wall. He tried to bury his grief under taking in his new surroundings. It wasn’t very different from the third wall, filled with conveyer belts and criss-crossing layers. Only this wall was smaller and packed full with more machinery. Metal arms transported boxed from one side of the room to another, lights signalled red when one machine was in use and green when it was in disuse. There were a couple of people here and there controlling the machines, but it was much quieter than the bustle of the third wall. The number of enforcers on patrol was also fewer.

Cheolyong pushed the trolley out into the open and it caught to attention of one enforcer.

“What have you got there?” he asked, sounding curious more than anything.

“Um, I was asked by an enforcer to ship the um, casualty, over here.”

“Ah, okay, just put it over there,” the enforcer said, cocking a hand over his shoulder at a docking bay. He drifted away, as if bored already.

Cheolyong gulped and pushed the trolley over. The minute he parked the trolley, matching it up with the lines on the ground, there was a clicking sound and something locked the wheels into place, preventing Cheolyong from pushing it anywhere else. He let go of the handles reluctantly, not wanting to leave Hyo Jin here to whatever fate awaited her, but this was his chance to explore and find out the truth. He squeezed his eyes close. I’ll be back for you, he promised feverently before turning away. 

The enforcer whom had instructed him to leave the trolley in the docking bay was too busy tapping at his computer screen to pay attention. Neither were the other enforcers across the room, deep in discussion over something. It looked like money was involved. Cheolyong scanned the room looking for the door at the other end of the wall.

There was a long conveyor belt with large containers of presumably goods held inside. Cheolyong watched as the belt brought a box to the wall where it pushed aside black curtains and vanished into a dark tunnel.

And then next to it, a small door, rusty and unimpressionable. Cheolyong snuck over, glancing furtively at the enforcers, certain he was going to be caught. But security was extremely lax this deep in the walls, the enforcers deeply bored with their monotonous job. And no one would ever expect someone to break this far into the walls. It just was unheard of.

Now this was the ultimatum. He stared nervously as the authorization panel slipped down. Would the temporary access the other enforcer had given him be enough? Or would this be the end of the line.

There was only one way to find out.

Cheolyong tilted his shoulder forwards, offering it to the blue lights that swept up and down. They vanished and were then replaced with a gentle beep and then the doors glided open.

Cheolyong felt like his heart had burst out of chest. Was this good fortune a fluke? He didn’t dare contemplate any further. He darted in and the doors closed behind him, his sister with it.

Don’t think about her, don’t think about it, he chanted. Just think about what is ahead.

The secrets. The truth of the factory. It was right here. Right within reach. 

He almost couldn’t reach the end of the tunnel quick enough. But as he got to the end, the doors didn’t open automatically as they had with the others. Cheolyong paused, puzzled. Was he meant to scan his badges again?

WOULD YOU LIKE TO ENTER THE TRANSPORTATION CHAMBER? A computerized voice asked and Cheolyong paused. He almost said yes, but there was that niggling sensation of an unspoken or?

“No,” Cheolyong said, heart racing like a bullet train. Was it the right answer? Or would he just end up back in the second wall? Or, or, or?

WOULD YOU LIKE TO ENTER THE RESEARCH FACULTY? The voice then asked and here it was. Proof that that there was more to the innermost wall.

“Yes,” Cheolyong stammered, his words tripping over themselves. He cursed silently. Get it together, he told himself sternly. It seemed to suffice though and there was an assenting beep.

PLEASE SCAN AUTHORIZATION AGAIN, the computer requested and Cheolyong held out his badges trembling. Please, one more time, he begged of his fortuitous good luck and it held.  There was another beep, gentle and not angry and then there was whirring. It felt like the floor was dropping beneath him and Cheolyong fumbled for the walls for purchase. Then it came to a grinding halt and the doors slid open smoothly and there beyond the white lay the secrets that had been haunting him ever since Hyo Sun’s death.

The sight stole his breath away.

Cheolyong didn’t know what he had been expecting. He had dedicated the past three years to simply getting in. He hadn’t thought about what he would do after that. And now he had idea what to do because, well, human bodies. That was what was at the heart of the innermost wall. Row and rows and rows of human bodies.

This is what the government was hiding. Human experiments. 

Cheolyong didn't know what he had been expecting, but it sure hadn't been this. 

< / REFLECTION:BLACK >

First update of 2015! Haha let's make it one of my new year resolutions to finish this fic this year (... um yeah we'll see)