Chapter One
James woke with a start, the nightmare fresh on his mind. He scanned his surroundings, unsure of where he was, his mind still groggy, his heart beating uncontrollably. He had been falling, endlessly, helplessly into the depths below. The darkness had been folding over him, encompassing the entirety of his body.
To his relief, it had only been a nightmare, his heartbeat slowly decelerating, returning to normal. As the seconds ticked away, the nightmare began to fade away and the horrific images of his dream dissipated.
Shrugging the dreadful dream from his thoughts, James rotated over in his sleeping bag and glanced over at his son Jake who was still fast asleep, tucked away in his thin, red sleeping bag, only his head peeking out from beneath. He appeared so peaceful and radiant with his eyes closed and a smile on his face. James compared Jake’s body position and expression to that of Sleeping Beauty, vaguely remembering the now ancient movie. James knew however, that unlike Sleeping Beauty, Jake was hurting beneath that smile.
James rubbed his hands together, the cold sweeping through his body, despite being curled up inside the sleeping bag.
It was now the middle of November and the transition from fall to winter had begun, bringing with it drastic decreases in temperature and harsher conditions. James had observed how the small birch and maple trees along the sidewalks and in the parks were now mostly bare, their leaves left scattered across the ground in all directions, breezing in coordination with the winds.
Only the young evergreens kept their leaves, handling the sub-zero temperatures with ease. James was envious of the evergreens, how those particular trees didn’t succumb to the cold.
Even with a jacket and two layers underneath, James felt like a block of ice, his body frozen to the core. A strong breeze appeared suddenly, and James sat shivering as it howled angrily around him.
The plummeting temperatures made functioning on the streets much more challenging, the conditions becoming harsher and harsher until the cold became nearly unbearable.
The breeze finally subsided, only to be followed by another as it slapped against his face and body, numbing him of almost all feeling. James imagined the clouds above purposely blowing cold air over him, as if angry at him. Subsequently, he wrapped his blanket and sleeping bag around himself more firmly to keep warm, the breeze continuing on for a few more seconds until finally it ceased.
James looked up at the sky. It was early in the morning, the sky still somewhat dusky, but he would not be able to fall back asleep. It was a struggle falling asleep once, considering all the noises that a bustling city entailed; twice was out of the question.
James sat up from his sleeping bag, immediately feeling a sharp pain in his upper back. He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to rid himself of the soreness. Sleeping on the rough, asphalt surface of alleyways and roads with only a sleeping bag for comfort had given him pain in almost every part of his body. His body had become heavy and worn down from the countless days and nights on the streets.
James felt ancient, as if he had aged twice as quickly over the last few months. He rubbed his eyes, which stung from sleep deficiency, his foggy brain leaving him groggy and disoriented.
James was fortunate to acquire five or six hours of sleep over the course of a single night. As James curled up in his sleeping bag to fall asleep, the sounds of the streets would keep him wide awake. There were the constant array of cars driving by, honking their horns, as well as the countless talking voices who walked to and from the nearby restaurants which were open until the early hours of the morning.
The worst however, were the nightmares. The constant nightmares plagued James night after night as he attempted to sleep, forcing him awake multiple times throughout the night. The dreams usually involved Jake. In the dreams, Jake would blame him for their homeless life or would yell at him for his lack of effort in keeping their previous life.
James couldn’t seem to shake the guilt. He was convinced that he had failed Jake as a father, having not cared for him properly, or ensured that he had all the necessities and opportunities of having a normal childhood.
James sighed and checked his watch; half past seven it read. James scanned the horizon again noticing the darkness beginning to fade away, slowly dimming into a lighter shade of blue.
He caught a glimpse of the sun as it slowly appeared over the horizon, brightening the sky more and more by the second. It was as if the sky was set on a timed dimmer to gradually increase in brightness as the night progressed into day. A few more minutes and the sunlight would encompass them completely, allowing the City and its inhabitants to exit out of their homes and begin their days.
James hoped that the sunlight would increase temperatures as well, though he considered it unlikely. Shivering, he blew into the cusp of his hands to try and warm them, but the transfer of warm air was brief and his hands were again overcome by the cold.
James glanced back over at Jake, trying to imagine the thoughts and feelings of a young homeless boy. He knew homelessness had been difficult for him, though Jake also lacked the same worries that James had to deal with daily. From the moment they woke up in the morning, to settling into their sleeping bags for the night, James needed to ensure that Jake was safe, though that wasn’t always a simple task.
Being homeless was the complete opposite of their past life which had been enjoyable and secure. Less than a year ago, James had a perfect family, a perfect home, a perfect life. Then it had all changed suddenly.
James’ life was turned upside down very quickly. It first started with his wife. His wife Julia had been undergoing chemotherapy and she seemed to be improving by the day. But then a few weeks later the tumour suddenly spread to the rest of her body and shortly after, she passed away.
James remembered the first day they had discovered she had lung cancer. The three of them were watching an action movie on their flat screen TV as male actors pranced around on the screen firing bullets. Suddenly Julia screamed out in pain. For a brief moment James thought she had taken a bullet from one of the characters in the film before realizing that it wasn’t possible. James immediately turned to her, surprised by her shrill.
“Julia are you alright?!” James had asked, startled and concerned by her sudden pain.
“I think so. I just have some chest cramps. I don’t think it’s anything severe.”
And then that was when Julia suddenly vomited all over the carpet floor. James distinguished the blood in her vomit as it splashed across the floor. Seeing the blood, he suddenly felt numb and was unable to move. His legs felt like they were glued to the carpet, as if attached to the ground. His mind was lost in a blur as if not sure if the situation was for real or just a nightmare.
After a few seconds, the adrenaline finally kicked in, removing the numbness from his legs and arms. James hurried Julia into his car and rushed her to the emergency room at the hospital as Jake sat fearfully in the backseat of their car, the expression on his face one of concern.
James recalled calmly telling Jake it would be okay, but James himself was shaking and felt his body in a state of panic, his mind barely able to focus on the road.
After waiting patiently in the reception for a few hours as Julia conducted a number of tests, the doctors finally returned. They confirmed the worst; that she had developed a cancerous tumour.
A few days later, she began chemotherapy and after a few months she had improved significantly. James was hopeful that the cancer would soon fade away and that they could return to living a normal life.
However, a few weeks later Julia mentioned that she was having difficulty breathing and was feeling fatigued. The doctors conducted more tests much to James’ urgency and they discovered that the cancer had suddenly spread to her lungs. A few days later she passed away, James agonizingly watching her drift off into the abyss.
The tears struck James with such venom as they hammered like raindrops against her lifeless body and the hospital bed beneath her. He desperately hoped it was just a nightmare and that he would suddenly wake up from it, but he never did.
James reminisced going to the hospital every day to visit her as she appeared to get frailer and frailer by the day, her body no longer supporting her weight. On a good day she could walk a few steps before becoming exhausted and needing support.
He remembered riding the claustrophobic elevator up to her floor as the elevator music repetitively serenaded him from a speaker above. He got off at the eighth floor and would enter her single room, instantly noticing the smell of roses wafting throughout, having been brought in by friends. He would approach her as she lay on the hospital bed, her eyes closed, seemingly overwhelmed in her own dreams and thoughts.
Usually she was asleep when James entered, but occasionally she was awake and upon noticing his presence would open her eyes, place out her palm with a pained expression on her face and James would grasp it, holding her hand until the pain subsided and she managed to fall asleep.
It broke his heart seeing like her like that. He felt so helpless and frustrated at his inability to help her. All he could do was wait and hope.
James recalled that she liked to have the blinds open in her room. James never understood the reason until one day she told him in between raspy breaths.
“James,” she managed to say before pausing to catch her breath, gasping in the process. “I like them open. The light gives me hope.”
When she passed away James wasn’t sure how he could move on. Losing Julia had made him numb and there were days when all he did was sit around on his couch and stare at the wall. James also now bore the responsibility of raising Jake on his own. He wasn’t sure how he would raise Jake without her, but now he had no choice. He had to.
Julia’s death was especially difficult on Jake. He had always been close with his mother and losing her at such a vulnerable age became challenging for him. He became very angry with the world as a result, and the slightest things would place him in a dark fury for hours at a time.
As well as the tragedy of losing his wife, James also had to deal with another loss shortly after. Less than two months after the death of Julia, the tech company James worked for specializing in computer memory, Hyper Software, filed for bankruptcy. James and hundreds of his colleagues were immediately laid off. James, without a safety net to fall back on; lost it all. He was given half a day to clean his desk and remove his belongings and was given a small gift basket of useless creams and soaps which he immediately tossed into the trash.
Hyper Software wasn’t alone when it came to bankruptcies. With the government taking control of the majority of the technological advancements throughout the City and placing them under the City’s jurisdiction, many tech companies went bankrupt without any proceeds to keep them profitable. This left hundreds, if not thousands more on the streets without jobs, though James wasn’t sure of the total number of displaced employees.
James went from dead end job to dead end job in an attempt to provide for him and Jake, but it was a nearly impossible task. The majority of the jobs he found paid little and didn’t give full-time hours, which was what he desperately required.
Unable to pay for many regular expenses such as food, clothing and the mortgage, James sold his car. It didn’t give him much, but the little cash lasted a couple months.
Shortly after, James had to make the difficult decision of removing Jake from his prestigious private school. Jake had only just begun his first year at the Fairmont private school, but James had no choice but to remove him from the academy. Without a source of steady income, he could no longer afford paying the private school fees that continued to increase year after year.
Simultaneously, Jake was dealing with incidents in school. He would get into fights, talk back at teachers and skip class. James had found himself in the principal’s office at least once every week, trying to mediate between Jake and his irritated principal, who repeatedly tapped his knuckles against the table as if to prevent himself from lunging out at Jake.
This was unlike Jake, but since the death of his mother, he had become different. James had attempted to discuss it with him, to tell him that her death was an unfortunate part of life, but that only made Jake angrier. He would begin yelling, slam his door and not emerge out of his room for hours.
Finally went the home. James tried to keep it for as long as he could. He ignored all the phone calls and letters from the banks demanding their payments, but eventually he was forced to go to the bank before they foreclosed his home. He needed to try and convince them not to. He begged and begged the banks but they wouldn’t listen. They sought their mortgage payments.
Without the money for the mortgage, the bank foreclosed on his house, as if it were a regular occurrence for them to displace people on the streets.
James recalled the day when the front door wouldn’t unlock. He and Jake had arrived home in the evening and as James began the process of unlocking the door, the key didn’t fit and jammed slightly as he turned it. The banks had changed the locks. James remembered feeling knots in his stomach, his chest constricting and making him feel nauseous. He had never felt so humiliated in his entire life. At that moment, James felt his entire life slowly collapsing beneath him.
Fast forward a couple more months and here he was, living on the frosty streets with his son Jake, trying to make ends meet. The streets were dangerous and James knew all about the risks. There were the drug addicts, the mentally ill, and finally the thousands of people like James who lost their jobs and, with nowhere to go, were forced onto the streets.
James also has to worry about the government. The current Mayor Stephen Marshall has vowed to make the streets and the City completely clean by two years’ time.
While the Mayor hasn’t publically explained his plans on cleaning up the streets, James discovered the Mayor’s strategies.
He learnt of the Mayor’s plans one night in the early days of their homelessness. James had been hiding in the shadows of a deserted alleyway, Jake next to him. They had begun preparing for the night, as they curled up against the back door of a warehouse building, wrapping their thin blankets around themselves. Suddenly, James heard the screech of tires as a van braked at the end of the alleyway.
James peered out towards the entrance of the alley and to his amazement, men in full body armour holding batons and shotguns exited the van hurriedly. James knew by their appearance that they were Government soldiers and private contractors.
As James continued to watch the sudden appearance of these soldiers, they suddenly began handling a group of homeless men, women and children as they shrieked and attempted to escape. The Government soldiers then swiftly corralled them into their dark van and drove away immediately, the muffled screams of the abductees disappearing along with them.
The soldiers had been efficient. It had taken them less than a minute to gather the homeless group and pluck them away. James remembered it being eerily quiet afterwards, as if all the sounds were sucked away along with the group. It was as if their apprehension had never happened, like those men, women and children never even existed. It was a terrifying thought. What if they were next?
James never saw those particular homeless people again. He later considered what had happened to them. One rumour that he’d heard was that the ones who were physically healthy and capable were forced to work as slaves on the many high-rises and towers which were taking over the city.
Another worse possibility was that the homeless were being killed off to keep the city clean, which was what one man had told him emphatically.
“It’s a conspiracy man!” he yelled. “They’re killing us all! Killing us I tell you.”
More and more homeless disappear by the day and James had noticed the slow decline of the street population. People James had seen and spoken to on the streets had simply vanished without a trace. James despised the Mayor, what he had done, what he was continuing to do with the City. He once respected the man, but now he knew better than to trust him.
James knows they have to be careful to avoid being kidnapped. They keep away from the streets during the night to avoid patrols of soldiers and they hide in less populated sections of the City where the patrols are less likely to search. They also avoid the Old City.
The Old City is a deserted section of the City that has yet to be rebuilt. Only remains are left, the dirt and ashes of a forgotten city, of a forgotten people. It lacks any kind of wildlife or ecosystem and the bones of trees stand like warnings to turn around and never return. Even the sky is pink and polluted, in contrast to the bright blue skies of the City, made possible by the addition of numerous gardens and trees.
The Mayor attempted to revive The Old City once, but failed miserably, the air far too toxic. He had planted trees and a large garden, but the trees had died out quickly, the garden withering almost immediately.
Homeless people live in the Old City by day and disperse by night to avoid patrols. The Old City feels post-apocalyptic; its homeless inhabitants wearing masks over their faces, appearing like zombies from the wreckage, as if portraying characters in a horror film.
He and Jake seldom enter the Old City, but when they do, James can’t help but think of The Great War. He is reminded of the history of the City, the different artifacts and buildings that made the City what it once was.
Having been abandoned and left for dead on the streets, James has heard the Mayor’s lies through his speeches which have been broadcasted on the many video billboards throughout the City. The Mayor has explained how homelessness is a direct result of drug and alcohol abuse and that he is continuing to build a better city through new developments.
The Mayor is convinced that homeless people are the main problem of the City, that by having homeless populations, the City appears slummy and filthy, which would diminish tourism and prevent new residents from buying property. He also refuses to acknowledge the Old City. An acknowledgement of it would acknowledge his own failure in completely restoring the entirety of the City.
James knows that not all homeless people are drug or alcohol users. The Mayor forced dozens of companies into bankruptcy, through taking control of all technological advancements in the City and by banning all other technological companies from existing. This resulted in thousands being displaced onto the street, including himself.
James hates the mayor, despises what he has done to him, and the other thousands living homeless. He is a criminal, having risen to power through illegal gun trafficking throughout the Great War. That was what James had been told by one of his friends who had fought in the war.
“The Mayor is ruthless”, the man had told him. “He didn’t care about the West or the East, all he cared about was the highest bidder; who would give him the most money for his goods.”
“How do you know this?” James had asked him, wanting to hear the man’s explanation.
“I was there man. He killed soldiers in front of me just to prove a point. Now, twenty years later, he’s built this City through the funds gained from his illegal activities and has implemented absurd tax rates which have justified his kidnappings of the homeless who are unable to pay. It’s crazy man. Crazy.”
What the man had explained to him sounded more like a political rant, but James had no doubt that it was truth. The Mayor was ruthless and had no empathy whatsoever. James didn’t know a single homeless person who didn’t despise the Mayor.
James never saw the man again after his rant but he assumed the worst.
The sound of shouting interrupted James’ thoughts. James looked up towards the sound and saw a frail, bearded man with messy, grimy hair that appeared more like tangled rope than it did a head of hair. He was yelling to himself as he walked by.
“Do you want me to make us some pasta?”
“Oh sure; I love pasta. What kind?”
“I was thinking penne.”
“I love penne!”
The man walked past them without acknowledgment. It was best that way. He was unstable and that made him highly unpredictable.
“Dad.”
Jake had whispered out to him. James looked over at his son, his eyes wide open, his expression one of fright. James hadn’t even noticed him wake up. He looked over at his son with concern.
“What was that Dad?”
“Don’t worry Jake – he’s gone now.”
Nevertheless, James couldn’t help but worry in case the man turned back and became agitated. He would protect Jake if he had to, but he prayed it wouldn’t come to that.
Jake watched the man in the distance as he disappeared from sight. James knew that his son was still not accustomed to living on the streets, not that anyone can ever really get used to the streets.
“Okay Jake come on, pack up your sleeping bag. It’s time to get going.” He could see his breath as he spoke, his cool breath wafting in the air momentarily before drifting away.
As he said this, he felt like a father telling his son that his play date was over and he had to come home now. Except that wasn’t the case. Their life was much more complex, much more difficult.
“What if there are still patrols out there?”
“Don’t worry. It’s morning now. There won’t be any.”
James looked down at his wrist, double checking the time on his watch. 7:42. They had a busy day ahead of them.
Jake nodded and without another word he began gathering his things. James observed his son as he rolled up his sleeping bag, folding it neatly and carefully and then placed it inside his large backpack along with the few other belongings he had left.
Together they strode out along the thin, narrow alleyway avoiding garbage bags that lined the alley which contained rats and potential diseases. The smells along the alleys were also atrocious, the waste and urine having collected along the walls. Luckily they were slowly beginning to adapt to the horrendous smell of waste that most alleys contained.
They passed the same mentally ill man who was now sitting cross-legged on the floor shaking and talking to himself. He was unwell and evidently had some sort of mental disorder, but he also looked like he was fighting with himself, trying to rid himself of the pain in his head.
James suddenly felt sick, being reminded of his own pain and struggles, how his life had changed so drastically. The pain was there in every part of his body, from his head to his toes, troubling him daily. He did his best to remove it from his mind, but it always returned. The streets did that to you; changed you.
Suddenly he felt queasy, his head pounding as if he had a brain freeze and before he could react he vomited onto the pavement, fortunately avoiding splashing the man seated on the ground. The man looked up at James, his expression one of confusion. James was relieved that the man said nothing as they continued on down the street.
“Dad are you alright?”
“Fine. Let’s go.”
James didn’t feel fine, but he couldn’t tell Jake that. He needed to be strong, despite how he felt. He needed to be a strong model for Jake and he couldn’t let his emotions show.
They headed back out to the crowded, busy streets, immediately being overcome by the sights and sounds of city life. Though now feeling better, James instantly felt overwhelmed by the crowdedness of an early Monday morning as cars drove by and businessmen strolled past them rushing off to their jobs and careers.
Over the years after the completion of the war, people had slowly returned to the City. These men and women, mostly from the East, had arrived from other cities that had been rebuilt after the war, bringing with them valuable foreign income which they spent recklessly. These foreigners had heard of the new opportunities and arrived like worker ants. The Mayor even offered five hundred dollars to anyone who relocated to the City.
The two of them walked into the business district suddenly feeling warmer as if the energy of the City were diffusing onto their bodies. They entered the world where the paradoxes of happiness and despair, success and failure were ingrained heavily into society, though no one ever spoke of it.
James watched the cars pass by honking their horns, working men and women marching down the streets arrogantly. Meanwhile, James struggled just so that they could endure another day.
As long as they kept moving, James thought. They just had to keep moving, away from the horrors of society and towards survival. Shivering, they walked on, the bitter cold blasting in their faces.
