Free The Last Place to Stand by Aaron K. Redshaw Page B

don't notice the ugly scenery. That was what she did. She knew what that man felt and it made her uncomfortable. She knew it because she had seen it. In the mirror, before she took her pills some mornings. He wanted out too, the same way she wanted out.
    She wondered if he cried also. Did he have the shakes like her? Was he suffering the same things, but unwilling to admit it even to himself? She found herself hoping so, because the alternative was even worse. What if he knew his life was built on false hope and lies that he told himself? What if he was going through the motions, hoping that someday he would start to feel better, knowing that as long as he stayed in this job, in this apartment, in these meaningless almost faceless relationships, things could only remain the same. Things would never get better, because the problem wasn't just the way he felt. It was where he was and what he did. It was the life he built for himself.
    She knew it was a lot to read into a two minute conversation. She knew she was being silly. But she also knew that look, and that didn't lie, because she had seen that look every morning before taking the pills and pretending one more day.
    She knew she couldn't go back to work. But that man had no one to talk to and he had no way out. Even though she didn't know the answers, she at least was starting to understand the questions, and some people might go through their whole lives and never get that far.
    She knew she couldn't go back to work. But she also knew that when she saw that man, she saw herself; and who could leave themselves behind when they could help, make a difference, be someone to offer hope?
    She knew she couldn't go back, but now she knew. She would.
     

Chapter 24
    In the mass of people there was unrest. Little Brother knew it and they were there for those who understood it. For those who were on the edge, they sometimes helped out. Over the last three years, more citizens were leaving the city and joining the resistance or leaving altogether to live among the Waldenese. What was interesting was that more had been deciding to stay and join the effort recently. Zach thought that was an odd thing to do. But then again, that’s what he was doing.
    He picked up his two-way radio and called out, “Chai, are you there?”
    “Yes,” said Chai.
    “What's going on in there?”
    “Samuel and his men entered the building probably ten minutes ago. We don't have any way to contact them, but we can pinpoint their location on the 398th floor.”
    “Very good,” said Zach. He turned to a man nearby. “How far does that transmitter you pinned on him go?”
    “Far,” said a burly man in black with a neck as wide as most men's waist. “That baby will send a signal halfway around the planet. Pretty cool, huh?”
    “Great,” said Zach. He spoke back into the radio, “Chai, why don't you stay there and let me know when you see them come out of the building.”
    “Okay, boss,” said Chai.
    “You know,” said Zach, “the Technos think they own the world. They think they are the only people on the face of it, and everyone else is just leftovers. They don't even know what's boiling under the surface. Can you believe that?” A whole group of men, sitting on some broken down piece of a wall, listened. It was a part of the city that had been abandoned. “I mean look at this. Here's a piece of land they ignore because it's easier for them to start building somewhere else from scratch than to clean this off and try again. That's what they do with people, isn't it? They would rather throw them away than help them cope. They treat people like machines. Machines!” He didn't have to tell them. He was preaching to the choir. They had experienced it first hand, and now they were his eager recruits.
    Zach had gotten on one of his rants again. He sometimes did that. He had been silent for so many years that now that he began to articulate what he felt, he didn't always know when to