Chapter Twenty-Three – Surprise!

Chapter Twenty-Three – Surprise!

“Every generation complains about the music of the next generation. It’s just how it works. Older folk don’t get new music.

But my music? It transcends genre. BeepBoopCore is the future of noise!”

–Excerpt from an interview with the European samurai Mix, 2031

***

Our trek down sludge line 537 continued uneventfully. Gomorrah didn’t want to press us into going too quickly and I was entirely fine with moving along at a slow but steady pace. I kept an eye on the waters ahead and stayed low and out of the way, in case we ran into any surprises.

The little green icon that represented us on our map plinked along neatly, moving closer and closer to the intersection where we’d be getting off. Junction 6H. A nice, auspicious name, full of history and class.

“We’re getting close,” I said.

“We are,” Gomorrah said. “The water’s different.”

I glanced back at her, then down to the sludge, which seemed to be the same almost-greenish brown as it had been the entire time. Maybe there were fewer chunks in it? I couldn’t recall seeing as many used sanitary pads floating by as before. Still wasn’t tempted to take a dip in it.

“You know, I don’t know how to swim,” I said.

“You mention that now?” Gomorrah asked.

“What was I going to do? Buy some floaties?”

Gomorrah shook her head. “I don’t know, but I’m quite certain there’s at least one floatation device available in your catalogues. Or an implant to teach you how to swim, at least.”

“This armour’s heavy. I’m pretty sure I’d swim like a brick in this. Also, a teaching implant?”

“You need a small implant in your brain. It connects to… well, your brain. Then you can download some lessons and, over a few hours, they’ll teach you something. It’s… not exactly pleasant? It feels like being on a sugar high the entire time. You keep getting weird flashes, as if you’re… have you ever forgotten something, like it was on the tip of your tongue, then it hit you for a moment, but it wasn’t important anymore?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said. “I can’t remember birthdays. Lucy’s been real miffed about it a few times, when I remember that hers was a week ago and I didn’t get her anything.”

“Right, well… I suppose it’s something like that for a few hours. Mildly annoying, because even as you’re doing other things, you keep having stray thoughts that aren’t exactly yours. But it does work.”

“Huh. What’ve you learned with that so far?” I asked.

“Driving was the big one,” Gomorrah said. “I haven’t really invested in any others yet. They’re on the pricier side.”

I grimaced. “I’m a bit cheap, you know.”

“Yes, because you want to be cheap with your brain implants,” Gomorrah said, her tone very flat.

“It is a difficult battle,” Myalis said, because of course she had something snarky to say.

That was a fair point. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of having stuff jammed in my head like that, but I could see how it might be useful. “Yeah, alright,” I said. “Something’s coming up ahead, by the way. The sound’s are different.”

“Different how?” Gomorrah asked.

I shrugged. “More echoey? Like it’s a bigger room or something.”

“Different acoustics, then.”

“That’s what I said.”

The tunnel didn’t widen ahead, at least not the part of it where the shit flowed. Instead, the top of the tunnel opened up into a huge circular room, with a tower in the middle and some bridges leading to openings in the sides, four of them, one for each cardinal direction. The sludge was flowing faster here, even as more of the stuff came down from another large sludge line and was unceremoniously shoved down the same passageway.

The section ahead looked a little different, large mechanical fence-like things dropping into the water, then raking through it before shifting to the side. They were covered with all sorts of thicker crap they were picking out from the sludge.

“There’s a dock there,” Gomorrah said.

I looked to the right, towards that tower-like section in the centre, and noticed a pier extending into the waters. It wasn’t too far from the place where it all sped up. I imagined missing that might mean running a boat into those large raking machines, which I imagined wouldn’t be amusing for anyone involved.