Before Building

by Dwayne Phillips

March 15th, 2008, 2008-011

Go to Dwayne's Home Page
Email me at d.phillips@computer.org

Dust crawled into his ear. It started to creep into the crevices of his head, or so it seemed. He could no longer stand it, so he pulled his hand from his eyes to scratch and claw the dust from his ear. That only made it worse. Now dust crawled under his eyelids and irritated his already dry eyes.

He gave up.

He tried to curl into an ever tighter ball of a body while still walking. All he could manage was one small step after another. The dust and the wind were relentless, but so was he. He wasn't going to stop walking. He resolved that last night. A tree stump was his last temporary refuge. He curled up next to the tree to sleep during the night - at least he thought it was night. Nothing was sure any longer.

He had been in this dust storm for a sun-moon cycle or maybe two. He couldn't remember and he wasn't sure of moon or sun any longer. Sometimes the world outside his clenched eyelids was darker, sometimes lighter. Maybe it was night, maybe it was thicker dust, or maybe it was the shadow of a tree or rock.

He felt his way along one small step at a time. For a while he extended one hand to feel his way along, but that allowed the dust to penetrate his ears, nose, mouth, and eyes. That was too painful, so he used his hands to seal his head as best as he could. He took one small step after another. The ground was level - that was a blessing. He bumped into what he thought were trees. Their surface was hard, rough, and curved.

He was adapting to this situation. As long as he didn't lead with his head or walk too fast his collisions with the world didn't hurt his body too much.

If only the dust storm would subside. He could see where he was. Maybe he could find some water or food. For now all he could do was keep taking one small step after another - and pray.

He prayed and prayed. He kept repeating the prayer that his mother taught him as a child.

"Oh fatha in hev. Hal be ty name. Ty king'm come, ty'll be done, on err as'n hev."

He repeated that prayer over and over. He wasn't sure what the words meant, but he did remember what his mother had told him many times, "Robbr, when the err is hard, pray and pray and pray. Fatha in hev will protek you."

So he prayed and stepped and prayed and stepped and prayed.

Then the ground under him felt different and the light became dim. He stopped for a moment and scratched the ground with his feet. There was something under his feet and under the layer of dust. The ground was hard like rock, but flat, much flatter than rocks. He didn't know why the light had dimmed, but that didn't pull at his curiosity like the hard, flat ground. He slowly stooped low to the ground hoping to be able to reach down with a hand and touch the strange, hard, flat ground. He tried to pull a hand from his face and feel the ground, but the dust bit into his nose and his hand flashed back up to cover it in reflex.

He stood half erect again, tall enough to walk and crouched enough to protect his body from the blowing dust. A step, another step, "Oh fatha in hev..."

After several dozen steps on this strange dust-covered hard, flat ground his body bumped into an object. This wasn't a tree as it was too hard. It wasn't a rock as it was flat - flat like the strange ground under his feet. He pressed his head against the object so that the backs of his hands could feel it. He didn't recognize the feel. This was something different. Had the dust storm worn a large rock into something that he hadn't encountered before?

He slowly pushed alongside the hard, flat object hoping to get around it. "Yes," he thought, "I'll just keep pushing along this until I get around it. Rocks - even ones this big and strangely flat - can be walked around. Just keep taking one step after another, just keep praying."

He continued. He took step after step never letting his body lose touch of the large, hard, flat rock - or whatever it was.

Then the object stopped being there. The leading part of his body wasn't touching it anymore, but the trailing part of his body was. He leaned into the object and felt another new sensation. This large object had an edge on it, like the sharp edge of a flint stone after breaking it on another hard stone. He leaned into the edge of the object and felt another part of it. The object had turned. This was almost like a rock that you could press against as you walked around it, but large rocks didn't have an edge like a flint stone. This was new to him. The ground continued to be hard and flat, and the object continued after it turned.

His head was pounding inside. He had been through one or two or three sun-moon cycles in this dust storm with no food, no water. He hadn't rested either, or maybe he had. Everything ran together in his mind. And now he was walking on ground like no other and pressing his body against the side of a large, flat rock that had an edge like he had never encountered before.

He was tired, so tired that he couldn't feel his body with his head any longer.

The ground changed again. The ground was higher. It was still flat, smooth, and hard under a layer of dust, but he had to step up. He was climbing a hill, but the ground of the hill had different levels. The rocks on this hillside were not right, but that seemed oddly normal as nothing here was normal. Every three steps the ground moved up a little. The ground kept moving up for several dozen of these levels.

He lost count, but that didn't matter as he lost feeling in his legs. He knew his legs were still moving, or at least he thought they were still moving. Maybe not as he no longer felt the ground rising under him. He no longer felt his body pushing alongside this large, flat object.

He had fallen to the ground; his body simply quit working. He finally realized his plight and decided that he had to stand and walk again. His body, however, no longer paid heed to his decisions.

"Oh fatha in hev. Hal be ty name. Ty king'm come, ty'll be done, on err as'n hev."

Something pulled his body and drug it a distance. The dust stopped blowing, the light grew bright, it became cold and quiet. His mind stopped.

* * * * * * *

Darkness slowly turned to a dim light. He opened his eyes, but couldn’t see as something was wrapped around his head. He should be moving, but his effort to do so failed. Arms, legs, torso – they didn’t respond to commands from his mind.

Stillness is all he could manage. He was lying on something soft like a thick grassy meadow. It wasn’t grass. Although he couldn’t move, he could feel with the skin of his back. Whatever it was he was lying on, it was comfortable.

There was something else covering the skin of his body. It wasn’t the deer hide that he had worn for several cycles of the sun. The covering was thin, soft, and didn’t weigh much. Whatever animal provided that hide must be from these parts of the land, something different from the parts of his life.

Since he couldn’t see and couldn’t move, he closed his eyes for a moment. His mind stopped again.

* * * * * * *

Light flooded his eyes. They were open, but he had to squint to keep the light from hurting him. Was he in the sun? The light was bright as the sun, but not warm. He was cool. It was not the time for the cold, short days. He had started his trek in the time of the long, warm sun-moon cycles. Surely he had not slept half a sun cycle.

Shadows and blobs were all he could see. He closed and opened his eyes several times. With each close and open, the blobs sharpened, but what he saw didn’t make sense. There were no trees, no rocks, no ground, no sky. Straight lines were everywhere. Trees, rocks, and waters were not straight, but all his eyes held were straight lines.

“Open your eyes slowly,” came a voice from somewhere. It was the voice of a woman, but it was a soft, gentle voice. It sounded like the voice of the mother of a young child, somewhat like the voice of his mother when he was a small boy.

“Whooo…ooo?” he tried to ask who was talking to him, but he couldn’t. The effort pained his throat.

“Don’t try to talk now,” continued to woman’s voice. “Stay still while I get a doctor.”

Footsteps walked away, and then there was a thump noise. He tried to raise himself, managed to prop himself on his elbows, but that was as far as he could rise. Looking about himself was a struggle, but the strange place woke his mind and sharpened his senses. He was in a cave, but not like any cave he had been in before. Perhaps he was in a shelter. That had to be it. He had been in a dust storm, but now he was in a shelter. This shelter was wrong. All the surfaces were flat and smooth. How could anyone make timbers and rocks flat and smooth?

One of the surfaces opened and several people wearing strange hides came out of the surface and towards him. His reflex was to slip to the ground and crawl away. “Put your back to a rock and be ready,” was his thought.

Falling and pain. He pushed himself from the soft, warm surface where he was lying, but his legs were weak and didn’t catch his body. He was surprised to learn that he wasn’t lying on the ground, but up in the air about the height of his waist. Landing on the ground hurt.

“Oh no, please don’t. Wait.” It was the voice of the woman he heard earlier.

She rushed to him, knelt beside him, and placed her hands on his arm. Her hands were soft, softer than any he had ever felt. How could a person’s skin be so soft?

A man walked over to him and knelt opposite the woman. His hands were stronger than hers, but also soft – too soft for a man. He looked at these two people. Their hides were strange. They were the color of fresh-fallen snow.

Everything was strange in this place. He was looking for something normal, something that he had seen before, but he found no such thing in this place.

The man and woman helped him onto his feet long enough for him to sit on the surface where he had been lying. Instinct told him move away and be prepared to fight. His body wouldn’t comply.

The third person in the room – another man wearing hides the color of snow – approached him. That person sat on an object the color of the leaves of a tree during the time of the sun cycle when leaves were new.

“Well,” said this man. “We have much to discuss.”

* * * * * * *

He sat on the soft, comfortable surface that the woman and the man who didn't speak had placed him. They had bent the surface so that he leaned back on part of it as if he were sitting on the ground and leaning against a tree. The man who had spoke to him and wanted to discuss much – the man they called doctor - pulled his sitting object near to him. That man smiled.

Doctor began, “I know that it hurts you to talk, so I'll try to reduce what you have to say. Your scans show us that you are in remarkably good shape for what you have been through, being caught outside in the dust storm and all. How many days were you in the storm?”

He looked at the man called doctor and twisted his face. He wondered about this thing doctor called “days.” He wanted to ask about “days,” but his throat hurt. He mustered his strength, held his hands on his throat and was about to attempt to talk.

“Oh wait, don't talk,” interrupted doctor. “Just hold up your fingers to indicate how many days you were in the dust storm.

He took his hands from his throat and continued to wonder about what “days” were. His gaze left doctor and went to the woman and the other man in the room.

Doctor followed the stranger's gaze to the other people in the room. He continued, “Let's try this. Do you understand what we are saying? If 'yes,' nod your head up and down.

Doctor was careful not to nod his head. It wouldn't help if this poor stranger saw the desired response and only mimicked him.

He wondered why doctor asked such a silly question. Of course he understood what they were saying. Well, most of what they were saying. Every now and then they used a strange word like “day.” He played along with their silly game and nodded his head up and down slowly and in an exaggerated manner so they wouldn't mistake it for something else.

Doctor smiled, sighed in relief and exclaimed, “Excellent! We can communicate. Let's try this. Please hold up three fingers.”

Once again he wondered why doctor asked him to do such silly things. He played along again and held up three fingers on his right hand.

Doctor and the woman smiled in relief again. The other man, the one who did not say anything, stood motionless with no expression on his face. He started to wonder if that man was stupid or something and couldn't understand what anyone else was doing.

“Good,” continued doctor. “Now, hold up one finger for each day you were outside in the dust storm.”

He puzzled again. Doctor was talking again about these “days.” What were days?

Without warning, he strained and in a hoarse tongue coughed out, “two or three sun-moon cycles, not sure.”

After that, his body sagged and his throat burned. He put both hands to his neck and massaged it hoping to ease his pain. Would these people ever understand how much it hurt for him to talk. What was wrong with them?

The woman stepped towards him quickly. “He is hurting. I'm going to give him something for his throat, a surface pain killer.” The woman walked away from him quickly to a surface of this shelter. She poured a blue liquid from one object into another. She then drew water from an object that extended from the surface and mixed it with the blue liquid. She carried this carefully back to him.

She pushed to him an object in her hand that contained the liquid. Slowly and carefully she put the object into his hand. Her hands were clasped around the outside of his, helping him hold the object. Her hands were warm, soft, and pleasing on his. She lifted the object towards his mouth and made motions with her own mouth.

His thought was, “Woman, I get it. You want me to drink this. Why are you acting so silly?”

He drank the liquid. Warmth flooded his mouth and down his throat. The pain was gone. He though a moment about this “surface pain killer” and what it could do for him. He spat up a small amount of the blue liquid and licked the outside of his right hand. This brought what he expected – a relief of the pain of the chapped skin. “I could use more of this,” he thought. He smiled.

He took a few short, slow breaths to help the pain killer spread through his mouth and throat. Then he spoke, “I'm not sure how long I was in the dust storm. I had to cover my eyes to protect them for the dust. I couldn't tell if the dark and light was the passing of the sun or the strength the storm. So, two or three sun-moon cycles, that is how long I was in the dust storm.”

Doctor and the woman looked at one another in amazement. They both smiled wide as to tell one another, “This guy is smart!”

The other man in the room, the one who did not talk, continued his motionless and emotionless stance. That man, however, continued to watch intently. His watching began to concern him, it was the watchful stare of a predator.

Doctor restarted the conversation, “This 'sun-moon cycle,' do you mean a 'day'?”

He answered, “I don't understand this word 'day'.”

The woman stood back a step and pointed up with one arm. “The sun is over head, up here,” wagging her finger upwards. “the sun falls low, the moon rises, you sleep, then the moon falls and the sun rises back up to here. That sun-moon cycle. That is what we call a 'day.'”

He grinned and wondered about this silliness. “Yes,” he said, “I call it a sun-moon cycle and you call it a 'day.'”

“Excellent,” started doctor again. “Now, what is your name? What are you called?”

“My name is Robber,” he answered simply.

“Robber,” replied doctor. “Robber what? Robber, what is your last name?”

“Last name?” asked Robber. “What is 'last name?' My name is Robber.”

Doctor continued his line of questions, “Well, yes Robber. Let's see, my name is Greg, Greg Cleaver. Dr. Greg Cleaver. You name is Robber what?”

“My name is Robber,” he answered again simply.

“I don't think he has a family name,” interjected the woman. “His name is Robber, simply Robber.”

Robber look at the woman and asked, “What is your name?”

She blushed a moment, smiled, and answered, “Tracy, Tracy Durham.”

Robber smiled. “Durham. Durham is a place. I have seen Durham. Tracy, did you walk here from Durham?”

* * * * * * *

They talked for an hour. Robber, Tracy Durham, and Dr. Greg Cleaver. The second man in the room – the one with no name – said nothing. That seemed like more silliness to Robber that Tracy and Greg never talked to the other person, never looked at him, and never said his name.

Robber learned that they were in these people’s shelter. This part of the shelter was below the ground, but was not a cave. They called their shelter “the building.” The called the surfaces “walls” and the opening in the walls were “doors.”

The walls of their shelter were made of concrete – reinforced concrete – whatever that was. Robber had seen concrete in his life, but always crumbling and in piles on the ground. Their concrete was strong, standing upright, smooth, and of different colors.

They learned that Robber had once seen a place called Durham when he was a boy. He was far away and had seen dust rising from a place that looked like a hill. Robber’s mother had told him that the place from Durham. She also told him never to go near any place that looked like Durham. She took him by the hand and let him away. Robber had seen other places like Durham at other times in his life, but always from a distance. He did what his mother told him and never went close to any of those places.

Tracy and Greg guessed that Robber had been in North Carolina as a boy. That was 1,000 miles from the building. The building was in Oklahoma, near where Stillwater once was.

Robber had walked five cycles of the moon on his trip that took him to the building. That was about 140 days. His walk had literally bumped him into the building during a dust storm. No one could estimate the odds against him bumping into the building. They didn’t know of any other structures within the horizon in all directions. He was luck to bump into the building as he would have died had he been trapped in the storm only a few hours longer.

Robber claimed to be 25 cycles of the sun old. He based that on what his mother had told him ten cycles ago, just before she died. They interpreted “cycles of the sun” to be a year. Robber’s claim of 25 years old made sense and agreed with the body scans they had done after the found him on the porch of the building.

These people had lived most of their lives inside the building. They had been outside a few times in recent years, but never when the sun was down.

They learned that Robber had never been inside a building before. He had been in what they surmised were ruins of buildings and houses. He had been in caves and sometimes shelters that he and a few other people had made.

Robber had met other people while walking. He had not met anyone in the seven days preceding his bumping into the building.

There was one concept both Robber and the building dwellers had in common. That was “before” and “after.” Robber told them that his mother was from Before and that he was born After. Greg, Tracy, and even the other man who never said anything and had no name all stiffened their backs and stared at one another in fright when they heard that. Greg was born just Before while Tracy was born ten years After.

They stopped talking when the surface painkiller in Robber’s throat wore off. Greg asked Tracy to bring some food and drink to Robber. He should start back on solid food as they had been feeding liquids from an I.V. Tracy brought him a small portion of cooked vegetables and a cup of water.

“This isn’t much, but probably more food than you had outside. We don’t know how you survived outside with little or no food,” said Tracy.

“Oh,” replied Robber. “I was fine. There is plenty of food out there.”

* * * * * * *

Robber was moved to another place in the building. “Rooms” is what these people called these places inside their shelter – their building. Most of the words they used to describe their shelter were new to Robber. He slept on a “bed,” learned to cleanse his body in a “bathroom” including removing his body’s waste. This too seemed to be silliness, but this is what these people did in their shelter.

His room had a “window” – a hard, flat surface that he could see through to see outside. His room - # 407 Robber learned to “read” some of their symbols – was high up in the air. Robber grew accustomed to looking outside and down at the err – the “earth” as they called it.

Robber would stand still by his window and watch birds fly by below him. He saw animals moving about through the trees and fields near the building. None of the other people in the building saw these animals. That puzzled Robber. With time he taught Tracy to see the animals. She claimed to have never noticed them before. That inability was more silliness to Robber, but perhaps it was true.

Robber tried to show Tracy and others the food that was outside. He was never able to have them see what he saw. They were startled to hear Robber say that there was plenty of food outside the building. They had been gathering food for several years outside the building, but never gathered much. Robber was obviously healthy and strong, not malnourished in any way, so he must have found food.

Robber asked if he could go outside. They were reluctant. For some reason, they feared being outside the building. They also feared that something would happen to Robber if he went outside. That was a great silliness to Robber. He had been outside his entire life. It was his home. He wondered if there was something evil outside near the building that he had never met before.

Finally, they let Robber go outside. Tracy went with him as did the man with no name who didn’t say anything. Robber was at ease with Tracy. She had spoken with him every sun-moon cycle – every “day” – he had been in the building. She taught him much about the inside of the building, how to use “stairs,” how to cause light and dark in “rooms,” how to make water flow, where they stored food, and such. Tracy seemed to understand how to explain their words, concepts, and symbols to Robber.

They exited the building through a large, heavy door that was held shut by man levers. Tracy told Robber that this entrance had been all glass Before. Immediately After it was replaced with steel.

Tracy pointed to a spot ten spaces outside the door, “This is where we found you.”

She walked down shallow “stairs” and around a “corner” of the building. “You,” continued Tracy pointing a place on the wall, “walked into our perimeter over there and bumped into the building at this spot.”

Robber walked away from the building several spaces. He felt the hard, flat, smooth surface under the layers of dust. He steadied himself, turned and walked to the spot that Tracy indicated. He leaned into the building just as he had done on that day in the dust storm, feeling its surface with his body. He remembered that feel in the dust storm. He retraced his path a few steps keeping contact with the wall of the building. Robber stopped. The memory was painful as he realized how close to dying he had been on that day.

Tracy told him of that day as they had lived it from inside the building. “I was called into the security room with Dr. Cleaver. We were there with the security watch for the day. Our sensors detected you when you were a hundred yards from the building.”

Robber looked at her with a puzzled look – one she had seen many times. She thought for a moment on how to translate the distance. After a pause, she pointed away from the building. “We first knew you were here when you came out of those trees. Normally we know of moving objects farther away, but the dust storm made if harder to see you.”

“We didn’t know if you were a person or animal at first. We haven’t seen a person come close to the building in several years, so we were surprised to learn when you came closer that you were a person. We didn’t know if you would find your way to the building. When you did, we didn’t know what to do. Our security policies are quite strict about keeping the building sealed from unknown outsiders.”

Tracy stopped her description short. Robber looked at her with pain in his face. She looked back with sorrow and guilt.

“We,” Tracy continued, but her voice cracked. She stopped a moment, swallowed hard and started again. “We were frightened of you. We didn’t know…”

She walked up to him, her hand slipped into his.

“Robber, believe me. No outside person had come near the building for many years. We were surprised, frightened. We knew you must have been in pain outside in the storm, but we had to wait. We had to protect everyone inside the building.”

“Why did you change your mind?” asked Robber.

“We didn’t,” answered Tracy as she squeezed his hand and looked up at his face. Tears filled her eyes, “We watched you stumble around the corner of the building, walk up the stairs and collapse. We decided to leave you there. But then someone, without permission and without direction, opened the door, stepped outside into the storm, and pulled you inside.”

“Who was that someone?” asked Robber.

Tracy turned her head slightly towards the man with no name who never spoke. “Him. He stepped out in the storm and saved you.” She then looked down at their feet in shame.

Robber looked down at Tracy’s head. He looked at her hand inside his. He then turned to the man who never said anything and had no name. “He also risked the lives of everyone inside your shelter.”

The three of them stood quietly a few moments. Tracy could only hear her heart pounding and feel Robber’s pulse in her hand. Robber heard everything. He was outside again in his element. He heard a slight breeze in the air, birds on the far side of the building, several deer searching for food in the woods.

Robber looked at the man who never said anything. Robber broke the silence, “You need me for something.”

Tracy startled at those words. She raised her head to gaze at Robber. Robber’s eyes were fixed on the man. Tracy turned to the man, then back to Robber. The puzzled look was now on her face. Certainty was on the faces of Robber and the man who never said anything.

The man broke his silence. “Dr. Nunsen will see you now.”

* * * * * * *

The man with no name led Robber and Tracy back into the building. After sealing the door, the man looked at Tracy and said, “I will take him to Dr. Nunsen. That is all for now.”

And with that Tracy sobbed and walked away.

The man led Robber down the stairs to the level where he was kept when he first arrived – the “infirmary” they called it. They walked around a few “corners” and up and down halls. They entered a door that had no symbols on it. That was the first door Robber had seen without their symbols. That door took them down more stairs to a lower level. They repeated the process at this level, winding through halls and finding a door with no symbols on it. This door led down one final set of stairs to a level that looked very different from all the others Robber had seen.

The lowest level of the building was like a cavern. The “ceiling” was three time taller than that of all the other levels of the building. This place was noisy – a noise that Robber had never heard before. The odor was different as well. It reminded Robber of relics of old vehicles from Before that had bleed a black, thick liquid onto the ground. Every now and then a white smoke would squirt from long, thin, winding black objects that wound around the level like the limbs of a live oak tree. Many of the surfaces in this level would blink in colors. Small objects would shine bright in a color and then be dark. Bright, dark, bright, dark. This was silliness. It was also strange. No one was moving an object to make the dark bright and the bright dark as Tracy had showed Robber how to do.

Robber didn't like this level, but something told Robber to follow the man with no name.

Robber and the man rounded a “corner” and came upon a small, short form on the “floor.” The form was covered with one of the hides these people wore, but this hide was covered with dirt and some of the black sludge that filled this level with its odor. Robber stopped here following the lead of the man with no name. They both stood still for a moment. Robber wondered why, then the form moved, turned, and the face of a person appeared. The form was a man or something that looked like a man.

“Oh, yes,” said the man in a small, squeaky voice. “Good. It is time we talked.”

The small man walked past the man with no name and stopped one pace from Robber. This man looked like no man Robber had ever seen before. Well, that wasn't quite true. Memories flashed through Robber's mind back to a time when he was a small boy. The man's face was wrinkled like the bark on a tree; his hair was the color of dirty snow, and he wore an object on his face that held pieces of “glass” in front of his eyes. Something told Robber that this man was – old.

The small man's hands were dirty, so he wiped them on his already dirty hide that he wore – Tracy told Robber that this was a “lab coat.” The small man extended his right hand towards Robber and held it there.

“Oh,” started the old man. “I see that no one has showed you how to shake hands. People used to do that all the time as a greeting back Before. Years of everyone living together in this same dump has removed greetings. You see everyone all the time, so there's no use to greet one another.”

The small man grabbed Robber's right arm with his left and pulled it forward until he could grasp Robber's right hand with his own. Robber grasped the hand in return, and the small man shook their mutual grasp several times.

“That my boy,” said the small man, “is what we used to call a handshake.”

The small man looked up into Robber's eyes, smiled, and said, “Welcome my boy. I am Joshua Nunsen – Josh. I have been waiting a long time for you.”

* * * * * * *

Dr. Joshua Nunsen walked Robber and the man with no name around the noisy, smelly level for a long while. Now and then Joshua, Josh he kept referring to himself as, would pick up a heavy object from the floor and bang it on something. He would also press his fingers on small objects and cause some objects to light and others to darken. Josh explained some things to Robber and merely mumbled about others. Robber was learning, but sometimes he simply didn't understand the small, “old” man.

It was difficult for Robber to hear Josh with the escaping white smoke and rattling of the winding tree trunks in the level. Robber had the impression that Josh wasn't really talking to him and the man with no name. Josh was just talking to exercise his voice. He seemed to be talking to the objects in the room as if they could understand him. Robber wondered if these object could understand the old man's speech. That looked like silliness to Robber, but so much he had seen and experienced in this shelter was silliness to him, so maybe this was true.

After a long while, the three of them ascended the stairs out of this noisy, odorous, large cave. They walked through a few hallways as before, but then stopped in front of a surface that had a long crack in it extending from top to bottom. Josh pressed a small object next to the surface and Robber heard a humming and felt a vibration in the floor.

“We don't use this often,” said Josh. “It takes power, and we are always trying to save power.”

The vertical crack in the surface opened as wide as the hallway and Josh started to walk through the opening. Robber froze. In front of them, through the opening was a small, dimly lit room.

Josh turned to the stunned Robber and reassured him, “Oh, this is safe. This is an elevator. It will take us up to the roof of the building. I think you will like it there.”

Josh then placed his hand on Robber's elbow and ushered him into the elevator. The man with no name joined them in the small room, the opening closed in front of them, and Robber felt them moving. It seemed that they were moving upwards.

After a few moments, the vertical crack opened again and Robber squinted his eyes to shield them from light – the light of outside, the light of the sun. They were on the top of the building. Above them was a roof, but not like the roof inside the building. This roof allowed much of the light from the sun to come through and let the wind blow through.

Robber quickly stepped out of the elevator into the outside. He didn't move his body, but it obviously absorbed the freshness of nature. He swelled.

“Ah yes,” said Josh. “I thought this place would suit you.”

Josh and the man with no name exited the elevator as well and the opening closed behind them. The three of them took a few steps away from the elevator and paused to take in being outdoors. Robber was surprised to sense that Josh and the man with no name both felt comfortable here. He expected them to react the way Tracy reacted when they went outside. He expected to sense fear on them, but there was none.

Josh turned to the man with no name and said, “Cal, stay here while Robber and I go over there to talk. You can see and hear us, but give us a little time.”

With that, Josh turned to Robber and continued, “Robber, you have meet Cal. He is my son.”

* * * * * * *

Josh and Robber walked away from Cal and the elevator. Josh led Robber to a corner of the rooftop that was not covered by a roof. Robber stopped for a moment, arched his back so that he could look straight up into the sky, and took a few deep breaths. Josh paused with him and did the same. Robber felt some closeness to Josh. This small, old man reacted to being outside the same way Josh did. No one else here did. Cal – the man who used to have no name – reacted somewhat the same way, but a little forced. Seeing Cal on the rooftop with Josh and learning of their biological connection answered several of Robber's questions about how Cal acted and why he stepped outside into the storm to save Robber.

In the corner of the rooftop, pushed up against a wall, was a pile of dirt with some weeds growing in it.

“Here,” said Josh pointing to the pile. “Let's sit here. I like to sit in this pile of dirt under the sky. It reminds me of Before when I was a boy playing in the Oklahoma dirt. Sometimes I sit here in the rain and waddle in the mud – just like a boy, just like Before.”

The two of them sat in the dirt and weeds. Robber felt the dirt in his hands. It was familiar, so it was comfortable. They could see Cal some 20 paces away standing still and solid as he always did.

“Cal can see us. That is one of the things he does. He comes up on the roof with me to ensure my safety,” stated Josh. “He can hear us. All our clothes – our hides as you call them – have communicators woven into the fabric. He wears a tiny listening device in his ear. I have used one to listen to everything that has happened around you since you came into our humble home. Some people think that is a terrible imposition on privacy. I do lots of things that some people here think to be odd. Some things haven't changed in the After.”

“You call yourself Robber,” continued Josh. “I have thought about your name. Given the southern accent, some slang, some loss of formality in the After, I am guessing your name is Robert. Yes, Robert. Does that name mean anything to you – Robert?”

“Ro-bert?” repeated Robber in a question, emphasizing the second syllable and punching the 't.' “No...” started Robber, and then he halted. Something flashed through his mind. It was a voice, his mother's voice.

“Robert James Anderson! Don't you touch that!” screamed his mother to him many cycles of the sun ago. He was a small boy. He was reaching down to touch something. She screamed, “Robert James Anderson! Don't you touch that! Don't you ever touch anything like that – ever!”

“Robert James Anderson,” said Robber, slowly with fear and trembling.

“Ah,” said Josh. “I have triggered something in your memory. Robert James Anderson. That is a fine, distinguished name. I am happy to hear you recall that. Perhaps you will remember more and teach us about life outside.”

“So, Robert” said Josh emphasizing the 't', “What do you think of our 'shelter' as you call it?”

Robert paused and started, “It puzzles me greatly. I have not seen anything like it in my life, not up close. I have seen places like this, but like seeing Durham, my mother warned me to stay away from such shelters. I would not have come to your shelter if I had seen it, but the dust storm blinded me. I didn't know it was here.”

“Yes, the dust storm,” said Josh. “A wonderful, terrible accident.”

“He,” replied Robber. “Cal, your son. He opened the door and pulled me in against the 'policy' of the others.”

“Yes he did,” continued Josh. “He did what I taught him to do. He exercised good judgment in many ways on that day. Cal doesn't speak much, so sometimes people here think he is stupid. That is as far from the truth as you can get. Cal understands much more than most people here. He has learned much more than I have taught him.”

“That is one thing we have done here in the building After. We didn't have enough children to have a school. We couldn't have enough children. We had to keep our birth rate very low so as not to run out of food. So, each parent taught their child to do what they did. Tracy's mother was a nurse who taught her all she could about being a nurse. Greg Cleaver's mother was a medical doctor who taught Greg all she could. Our libraries contained everything else our children wanted to learn. We were cut off from the net very soon After, but we had downloaded much in time.”

“What do you do?” asked Robert. “What did you teach Cal?”

“Me? Cal?” replied Josh. “I'm O&M – Operations and Maintenance. A wasted life my colleagues told me Before. A PhD in electrical engineering should be doing research, should be solving some of the world's great problems. Shouldn't be throwing away a life on O&M. Perhaps they were right, but that is not how it worked out. I took the O&M job in this building Before. Then After came and I was important to everyone inside the building.”

“I taught Cal how to maintain the building,” continued Josh. “He learned everything, he learned the truth about the future of the building. Then he concentrated on the libraries to learn his other skills, those dark things that the others here don't discuss. For one thing, he learned how to forget policy. He learned how to risk and be ready to fight.”

Both of them paused a moment.

“Yes, Robert. If you had turned out to be something or someone else, he would have fought you and killed you.”

“What is the 'future' of the building?” asked Robert.

Josh explained. “This building was built to be an agriculture research station. We opened it one year – one cycle of the sun – Before. Since we were to work with organisms, this building was hardened in several ways to control the entrance and exit of organisms. Well, it has worked in that respect as it has kept people inside and people outside these 33 years After.”

“You see Robert, and forgive me if my speech seems to be 'silliness' as you call it. You see we all speak of Before and After to save words. 'Before' means before it happened and 'After' means after it happened. The separation of Before and After was the year 2052. We used to number years Before and some of us keep numbering them now, in the After.”

“We are now in the year 2085, in the fine month of June. Ah, spring is almost past and we will soon be in summer. People don't use those words like spring and summer anymore.”

“So, we have been living inside the building for 33 years. We have our own power source in the basement – that level where you and I first met. It was spec'd to last 30 years. Yes, it should have died on us a couple of years back, but we have stretched its life. Up here on the roof we have done some things with solar hot water heaters and in the last few years have had some success with wind power. Those things and a few tricks in the basement coupled with conservation. Yes, those things have helped us stretch our power. But, as Cal learned on his own, we can only stretch so far. The power source will quit in a couple of years, maybe five more if we are lucky.”

“We have a good water well. Our pumps keep working so we have all the water we need. Food has been the real problem. We had ten years worth of food stuffs in the building. It was someone's idea of a joke I think, but it was a safety measure in case we developed something in here that required quarantining us from the outside world. We could stay inside until someone figured out what to do with any micro-Frankensteins we might have created.”

“Ten years food of course wouldn't last us 33 years. We stretched it – still are mind you as we have some of the original food just in case. As you can see here on the roof we have been growing vegetables since right After. We also grow vegetables on some of the higher floors of the building – floors 5 and 6. We use the southern side near the windows in what were supposed to be 'offices.' We even raise rabbits and chickens on those floors.”

Josh chuckled and shook his head. “Yes, our own little Noah's ark here.”

Robert sat up and looked at Josh. “I know about Noah and the ark. My mother told me about Noah and the animals and his three sons and the flood.”

“Oh,” replied Josh. “So you come from a religious family. Wonderful. We could use some Christian stock here. Well, we could use any human stock here. But that is another topic.”

“This building,” continued Josh, “was only a year old and not yet fully staffed when it happened. We had 300 people on staff here. Some went home and brought their families to the building for safety. They understood how the building was built, the power source, the well, the food storage. They were right.”

“They entered the ark with Noah,” interrupted Robert.

“Yes,” said Josh. “Why yes that is right Robert, they entered the ark. Others stayed home, others ran away to somewhere they hoped would be safe. It didn't all happen in one day, so some people went back and forth hoping that it would pass and we would return to normal again. That didn't happen, so at the last people rushed here and there hoping to be in a good place. Several of us replaced the glass on the first several floors with steel – we readied the ark you might say. We told everyone that we were going to lock the doors. Some believed us and felt this was the place to be. They arrived here in time. Others waited too long. The world outside fell apart abruptly one day trapping some people, some parts of families outside.”

“The day we locked the doors the oldest children inside the building were ten years old. They were all in primary school. Some of their parents and siblings were locked out. The siblings were in middle and high school. The parents had gone to fetch them, but something happened and they never came back to the building. We would have opened the door for them had it been safe, but they never came back.”

“What happened to them?” asked Robert.

“We don't know,” answered Josh. “Their communication devices should have worked, but stopped. So some of these children 10 and under become orphans here. Some had one parent and some of their siblings, and on and on. It was terrible inside here.”

“That is one thing that tears at us here. People here wonder still about their parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, and friends who were on the outside. What happened to them? Are they alive? That is a terrible nagging nightmare.”

“What about your family?” asked Robert.

“I didn't have a family Before,” answered Josh. “As I told you, I was odd; I was wasting my career; I was unattractive in the world Before.”

“We kept the doors of the building locked for ten years,” resumed Josh. “Soon After people came here, pounding on the steel doors, throwing rocks at the building, even trying to scale it with ladders. We sat inside refusing to open. I don't know if we were right to do that. We – those of us who were adults Before – decided to keep the doors shut, to keep others outside and us inside. We did it to protect the children we had and were going to have.”

Josh paused. His voice had cracked. He looked at his son Cal and thought about all the children who had stood outside the building during those first ten years. He coughed hard several times to clear his throat and wiped his eyes dry.

“Those were terrible days. Most of us who were adults Before died during those first ten years. They just couldn't live with themselves for keeping the doors shut and turning deaf to pleas from outside.”

“We unlocked the doors for the first time in the tenth year After. We started to forage about the outside of the building for food. We even planted some crops out there. Some food grew, but we were afraid, too afraid to spend the time needed tending and gathering crops to make it worth while. But there was enough success to stretch our food, so we kept at it.”

“That is how we have lived these last 13 years. Some foraging, some gathering of food. Mostly growing it here on the roof and next to the upper windows.”

“Everyone who was an adult Before died. All except me. I had the O&M to keep my mind and body occupied, to keep me alive. The other adults remembered too much from Before. They enjoyed the Before world, and couldn't accept its passing. Me, well I didn't like the Before world much, and it didn't like me much. I have come to terms with all this. I'm not perfect; I haven't been right all the time, and some people see me as being cruel. God will judge me one day. I know I am alive as are 200 other people in this building. We are all healthy in the physical sense.”

“But, we cannot stay inside here forever. We don't produce enough food, and our power source will quit in a few years. I have explained this to the people here, but most don't understand it or don't want to understand it. Half of us were born in the building After. The rest were ten years old or younger when it happened. This is the only world they know.”

“These young people have their lives inside the building. They do quite well here accepting the food and energy rationing, the small birth rates, all those things that their parents couldn't accept and died because of. But, this is all they know. They aren't good outside the building. Only a few of them are any good up here on the rooftop helping me grow food. They scamper to the stairs when the wind blows hard or dark clouds pass over. Night frightens them, so does rain. The dust storm that blew you our way. Oh my goodness. As long as they were in the interior of the building with their inside entertainment they were fine. They wouldn't go stand safely in a room with a window. No wonderment of nature – only fear.”

Josh looked down at the dirt he was seated on. He shook his head side to side and muttered, “They just aren't any good outside the building.”

The two sat quietly for a few moments. Several puffy clouds blew past. A small bird sang from one the bean plants growing on the roof. Robert breathed the fresh air and thought through many questions that had come to him while listening to the story of these people in this building, this building that existed Before, this Noah's ark.

Finally, Robert turned to Josh and sighed, “So you do need me for something. That is why Cal pulled me inside from the storm.”

Josh looked up at Robert. He put his dirty hand on Robert's shoulder, then on his head to muss his hair with the dirt from his hand.

“Yes my boy,” said Josh. “I do so desperately need you.”

“Look at you Robert,” said Josh. “You remind me of people from Before. Your eyes are bright, your skin is tan to magnify the glow of perfect white teeth that were never ruined by candy. You have muscles from walking, climbing, running, and working in the out of doors.”

“Dr. Cleaver kept wondering how you could survive on the outside without food. Imagine the 'silliness' of that Robert. One look at you would convince any quack that there is plenty of good food on the outside. All you need are the five senses Our Father in heaven gave us to find it.”

“Oh fatha in hev. Hal be ty name. Ty king'm come, ty'll be done, on err as'n hev,” said Robert without thinking.

“Yes,” replied Josh. “Our Father in heaven. Hallowed by they name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Yes, you come from a fine Christian family. I'm guessing your mother taught you that.”

“Yes,” said Robert. “My mother.”

* * * * * * *

Robert spent most of the time during the next week with Tracy and Cal – Cal always being 10 or 20 paces away. The first day they walked one hour away from the building, turned around, and returned. Each day they increased the outward-bound portion of their walk so that by the end of the week they went out four hours, turned, and came back. During late spring, that provided plenty of daylight before and after their walks.

Tracy was noticeably frightened the first couple of days, but gradually grew accustomed to being outside. She watched Robert and learned how he moved. Her senses, while no where as attuned as Robert's, began to notice the details of the world outside.

Robert pointed out the animals – all edible – that were around them. He showed her and had her sample the plant food available. Much of it was wild versions of crops that were domesticated Before, but had moved towards wild in the 33 years of After.

Each evening, Tracy would show the day's find to others in the building in the libraries. They had seen these sources of food in their libraries, but somehow they weren't real to them. Somehow they were all fright and no comfort. Slowly, they began to be comfort.

During the week after, Robert and Tracy would walk alone outside for eight hours every day. They scouted the area in all directions around the building. Josh taught them how to make maps, so that the people inside the building would know how to go to places and return to the building safely. They learned where there was food.

Cal accompanied other groups of people from the building on daily walks. They followed trails made by Robert and Tracy and, like Tracy, some of them acclimated to being outside. It was slow, but it was happening. They were venturing out of the building – only during daylight and only on select paths, but it was a start.

What happened next was a surprise. A few of the building people were on a walk and stumbled upon two human skeletons. Scans of the skeletons convinced them that these were the remains of a mother and child who had died in the year 2055 – several years After, and within two hours walk of the building.

The find brought the nagging question to the forefront. People wanted to know what happened to their parents, their siblings, their friends. People wanted to know what happened to other people.

The building was 30 miles from what used to be the suburbs of Stillwater, Oklahoma. That was two hard days walk out and two hard days walk back. No one could go there and back without staying outside overnight. The thought of being outside overnight scared the curiosity out of many of the people. Still, however, some were not satisfied to leave answers out in the night. They wanted someone to go see what was outside.

Robert thought nothing of taking a week outside to see what was there. Cal was ready to join him, and Tracy was still frightened, but willing to go with Robert and Cal. Josh stepped in. He had confidence in Robert. After all, he had lived his entire life outside. Josh also knew that sometimes people just didn't come back as planned. He needed Robert and didn't want to risk him. He adamantly refused to let Robert and Cal both leave on the trip.

After several days, Josh gave in. He would agree to Robert and Tracy going out towards Stillwater. They would take the best communications equipment they had. Josh would rig an antenna on the rooftop and try to follow them as best as he could from there. He felt that at some point they would probably walk out of range. Cal would have to stay at the building.

Two days later, Robert and Tracy walked out the door of the building. They carried a week's worth of food and water with them. Robert thought that to be silliness because he knew he could find food and drink outside. Josh and the others, however, insisted they take these supplies. Robert would have dropped all that weight on the ground just out of sight, but Tracy would be with him, and he knew she was comforted by the supplies. Several dozen people walked outside the door with Robert and Tracy.

Josh looked around at these people standing confidently outside the door. Some of them had tans from being outside for a few hours each day. Josh had to teach the people how to say goodbye. It struck him that they had never told anyone goodbye because no one had ever left the building in their life.

Robert and Tracy took their first few steps away from the building, but Robert stopped and turned to Josh.

He asked, “What was it? What was between Before and After?”

“Ah,” replied Josh. “It. We will talk of it another day.”