Written on August 2, 2020 by Gale Striker
Category: Impromptu
“Citizens of Estimate Under, I ask for a moment of your day. Please heed my words, for there is a great trouble approaching.” Vious Obli stood behind the podium with a certain defiance she held throughout her career as leader of the great city. “I need every citizen to cooperate without question, there is not enough time explain the situation in detail.” Her voice boomed throughout every street corner leaving everyone silent. That is, almost everyone. Treme Ex quickly typed on his keyboard communicating with his coworkers while Vious Obli looked over his shoulder within the television broadcast glowing behind him.
“Within the next hour a tropical storm like no other will approach this city and it will hit hard. I ask that every citizen drop what they are doing right now and enter the bunkers within the dam. They will keep you safe until the storm has passed.” Treme snickered in defiance. He knew it was a lie. Hell, he had designed those very bunkers himself. There was not enough space to store everyone. People were going to die. This speech was just to keep the cattle calm before the butcher. “Head to the western side of the city and patiently wait to be processed by security. We want to make sure everyone makes it safely inside. Let us proceed in an orderly fashion. That is all. Leader Obli out.” Her picture disappeared from the television only to be replaced by a still map of Estimate Under. A variety of colored arrows gave the shortest routes to the bunkers from various districts.
Treme would not be heading to the bunkers today. In fact, Treme didn’t think he would ever be allowed return to the city once the people found out what he did.
Yo Ex, progress update! Will this dam be ready to blow? - Tide
The message appeared in the console waiting to be responded to. Treme’s coworkers called him by his last name. He wasn’t sure how the formality started, but he was not keen to correct them in fear that he would get another name like “old man” in its place.
Give me one second. I need to check the sensor readings. - Ex
The keyboard clicked rapidly as Treme responded.
If my initial readings are correct, this storm should be enough. - Ex
He pulled up a clunky looking window onto his second monitor. Different colored bars fluctuated with rapidly changing pH readings and water levels. It was hard to measure anything in a river with a hurricane in the horizon. It was weird Vious never called the “tropical storm” a hurricane.
After adjusting a few settings Treme was able to stabilize the sensor reports. The water levels were at an all time high. Just a little more pressure and the eastern part of the dam would shatter. 20 years of engineering would finally pay off.
It’s really looking good Tide! Assuming we don’t suck at our jobs, the dam will break. Or maybe assuming we do suck at our jobs? Help me out here. - Ex
Tide responded almost immediately. Treme was always creeped by how inhumanely fast Tide could type.
HA! Trust me, you have to be good at your job to make the most important infrastructure of a city look stable yet actually be one tiny storm away from falling apart. - Tide
Okay buddy, get to safety. I’m getting the hell out of here. - Ex
With the final message, Treme turned off his computer. It was pointless to keep his house in order as he would never come back to it, but tradition was a hard thing to break. He took one last look into his fridge and pulled out a beer. Might as well have fun watching the world drown, Treme thought.
As he exited his house rain ripped across his face. Wind howled nearly knocking him back into his house. “Jaysus!” Treme muttered to himself as he rounded the street corner. Unlike most citizens who were following the main path to the bunker, Treme took alleys and side pathways leading in a different direction. Every single street, every building, even light posts were ingrained in his head. It only took a few minutes to reach the edge of the dam, towering over the city like a skyscraper. He had four hundred floors to climb up since all the elevators were undoubtedly offline and obviously unsafe.
By the time he reached the fiftieth floor he had a fantastic view of all the districts. The engineering district was directly below him. Although he thought he was erring on the side of paranoia building his house closest to the emergency exit, he was glad that paranoia was warranted. Citizens slowly walked towards the bunkers. Armed security guards “randomly” stopped the unskilled citizens putting them in a waiting room to be “inspected.” Treme spit towards the guards general direction. The whole situation disgusted him. He new Vious well. They had worked together during the first years the city was being built. From what Treme could tell, Vious had her own set of plans on how to secure her safety. That was her top priority all along. Treme was sure she was sitting in her own personal bunker on the eastern side of the city waiting to emerge from the wreckage and lead the people through the latest hardship.
Another fifty floors passed by much faster than Treme thought they would. His legs were strong from all the work he had done earlier that month reinforcing the very emergency exit he was climbing. Wind battered him around so much that he had to cling onto the railing. The eye of the storm was almost in view. Cracks started appearing on the eastern side of the dam. Soon, the crack would grow bigger and bigger. His engineering “flaws” would cause the dam to break only on the eastern side of the city creating a permanent waterfall directly on the political district. Treme really hoped Vious didn’t have a second personal bunker he didn’t know about. He wanted her to be stuck under the crushing waves of oppression just like every other citizen.
By the time Treme was halfway up the emergency exit, he had to strap himself to the railing. The dam was so close to bursting that Treme didn’t want to climb anymore. The shockwave might throw him off the stairs. He looked above all the districts when suddenly someone above him shouted. “Treme you damned fool! Look what you’ve done!” One floor above Treme was Vious Obli with two armed guards. “I’m going to kill you for this! You ruined my city!”
Treme frowned. This was not in his plan. “You won’t kill me!” He shouted as loud as he could. The wind was impossibly loud.
“Why not? I have two trained guards right here, ready to fire on my order!” She pointed beside her. They did look like very intimidating guards.
“If you kill me, it looks like you are covering up for something! If you let me go, I could just be on vacation!” Treme’s voice was becoming hoarse. “You wouldn’t want to jeopardize your position, would ya?”
Vious gave him a dirty look and paused. “Fine! But I don’t want to see your face ever again!” Treme had managed to climb to the next floor.
“Sounds good to me.” Treme responded as he continued carefully climbing to the top of the dam and outside the city forever in exile.
The Impromptu section of Sea of Book is a challenge where the author has one hour to write a story based off of three random words. They get no time beforehand to prep and must make a (greater than) 500 word story that somehow incorporates the idea of each word.
This particular challenge used these three randomly generated words: exile, trouble, and scheme.
