Darkness in New Cortima City

The soft pitter patter of rain on the cracked window had been a white noise constant for about an hour. The gray clouds above seemed to taunt her. Sola was laying on her bed with the back of her head cupped in both hands. Trapped in thought, while also thinking of nothing in particular. It had been a tumultuous couple weeks for Sola. She had been dumped and fired all in the span of a few days. Nothing new for a kid on the south side of town. Sola was of the opinion that a cloud of bad luck hung above her and her community, poorest of all the city. Her friends, her family, her neighbors. They were the kindest and most hard-working people you would ever meet. But you can only get so far in New Cortima city without a trust fund.

It wasn't always this hopeless for the people of the south side. But 20 years ago, when the big three came together to restructure the city, many started to see the illusion fall and the prison bars that were the railroad and 85th street tighten around them. The Cortado family, the Timera family, and the Mallard family had been battling for corporate power of the city for decades when Samuel Cortado did the unthinkable. He united the families in a partnership that was powerful enough to buy the whole city and rename it.

With Cortima Corp's patented Gravitum ™ technology, old school elevators were a thing of the past. Even the most downtrodden buildings had a Gravitum Platform ™. A blue tunnel of hard light that could instantaneously form 2in thick platforms sturdy enough to hold 5000 lbs each. Once thought to be theoretical technology in a sci-fi movie or comic book, Gravitum ™ hard light revolutionized every economic sector from healthcare to real estate. The world was forever changed with this scientific break though from the world's greatest minds funded by the world's deepest pockets. Long gone were the days of "out of order elevators", making the Gravitum Platform ™ the only nice thing about Sola's building.

The most unnerving thing about Sola's 46th floor apartment was not the rats or the crumbling popcorn ceilings. It was the swaying you would feel when the wind would pick up. It was subtle but if you were already feeling heartsick, it was enough to make you feel seasick. Such was the consequences of massive high rises meant to pack away masses of those deemed undesirable by the corporations that ran New Cortima city. With advancements in AI and the Gravitum ™ technology, many jobs had become automated or eliminated altogether. No blue collar jobs meant no need for blue collar workers. So, they were relegated to a life of poverty and adversity. This pre-determined path gutted Sola more than Trish's "This just isn't working" text.

Suddenly Sola's alarm went off and she slapped around the bed to look for her phone.

"6pm already?" She groaned. Sola had recently joined the FFAB organization, Freedom Fighters Against Billionaires. She had only joined because Trish had begged her to. She thought the name was lame, and the member events were like a pity party circle jerk.

"They never do any real activism, Trish. They just boo-hoo and twiddle their fucking thumbs. That's getting us nowhere."

"This is about community building, Sola. Not everything has to be a fight. Please just come to one meeting. They have free snacks."

And that's what sold her. Free snacks. Sola never passed up an opportunity for free food. And now that she and Trish had broken up, it was the only way Sola could ever see her. If only she could just pull herself out of the muck and show Trish that she could work on her anger issues. The meeting started at 6:15pm and they met in the 2nd floor lounge room of the apartment building. Sola hopped out of bed, hastily pulled up her favorite pair of sweats, threw up her curly hair in a bun, and headed out. She hopped on the East 2 Gravitum Platform ™ and was on her way. Sola gave a look of disgust to the holographic plaque placed on each platform with a smiling Samuel Cortado and Cortima Corp's mission statement.

"Gravitum-Raising Humanity to New Heights"

Sola stepped out from the Gravitum Platform ™ into the 2nd floor common area. To her surprise, she saw crowd gathering outside the closed door to the lounge area. Normally most people had trickled in and were socializing by now. She approached the talkative yet hushed-toned crowed, and the sign on the door became legible.

"FFAB MEETINGS CANCELED INDEFINITELY"

Sola searched the crowd for Trish but there were no 5'4" brunettes with a nose ring in sight. She was only slightly disappointed with losing access to free snacks every Wednesday at 6:15pm, but she was sorely disappointed to be losing her one chance to make things right with Trish. Sola wandered down the hall to the rarely used emergency staircase. She and Trish would often hang here since no one ever used the stairs anymore. She plopped down onto the 2nd stair from the top and began scrolling through her old photos, reminiscing the days when bad things didn't seem so bad. Back when she had someone to laugh at her corny jokes and when she enjoyed eating burnt food because someone she loved made it. Just when Sola was losing all hope of love, an unexpected call popped up on her phone. Her heart sank and soared all in one moment. Trish was calling.

"Hello?" Sola broke out into a cold sweat. It had been 2 weeks since the break-up and they had not spoken since.

"Sola? Hey...um. How have you been?"

Sola chuckled, "Uh not good. Like really not good. I..." Her voice trailed off. She didn't want to say too much and sound desperate.

There was a heavy pause, then Trish spoke up. "So, I guess you've seen the news? About FFAB?"

Sola closed her eyes, dropped her head and sighed. I guess she didn't really care how I've been. The sigh must have been audible, and Trish rebutted.

"Listen, Sola. I know this isn't what you wanted me to call about. And I promise we will talk soon. I just... I'm a bit busy with some things. I'm gonna make something of myself soon. Maybe we... I don't know. It's...it's a lot. But I promise we'll talk. Hey uh, I gotta go." *click*

Sola was left on the staircase with a mix of emotions and no real answers, an unquenched thirst. Sola had been through plenty of break-ups before, both dumper and dumpee. But the dreadful hole in her heart had never lingered this long. 2 weeks with nothing and now this? Screw it, she thought. She got up and wiped the dust off her pants and headed up to Trish's apartment.

It took 10 minutes of walking up and down Trish's hallway. 10 minutes of deep breaths and shaking hands. 10 minutes of shaking her head and hovering fists before the door for Sola to finally knock. Fuck, this is dumb. I should go. Sola quickly turned with her head down and walked back towards the platform.

"Sola?" Trish called out from her doorway. Sola paused. She was frozen in both fear and relief. She slowly turned as she was tackled from behind with a hug from Trish. Sola was not expecting such a warm greeting. They walked awkwardly back to Trish's apartment, but Sola had the first spark of hope in a long while. They talked for hours. They argued a bit. They cried a lot. And most satisfying for Sola, they kissed and made up for longer than they talked.

Sola woke up with her head halfway on Trish's pillow. Sola rolled over to face Trish and smiled to herself. She swept a stray hair from Trish's still sleeping face when she noticed the warmth she felt from the sunshine pouring in from the window to the right of the bed. Storm's over, she thought to herself. Within and without. Sola's thoughts were interrupted by Trish's outstretched arms and one of the biggest yawns she had ever witnessed.

"Good morning beautiful. I missed being smacked by you stretching in the morning." They both giggled and Trish turned to meet her eyes.

"I missed you too." Trish sighed and broke eye contact. "You know, I should have never cut things off like that. I was going through something I couldn't talk about, and it made me so stressed, and I became a bitch and... yeah. I'm sorry." Sola's head tilted as her curiosity peaked. "But I can talk about it now. In fact, I need to tell you about it." Sola sat up and pulled her knees to her chest, eager to hear about the so secretive thing that caused a riff in their relationship. Trish sat up too and took a deep breath. "Sola, you were right. About FFAB. It had it's time and place, but we are past the community building phase."

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"Please Sola, just listen. Okay, so FFAB is no longer thing. Wren and Ameris disbanded because they felt how you felt too. So they decided to form a new and more tight knit organization. We are called ARATO now. It stands for Armed Revolutionaries Against the Oligarchy. And we formed to take action. Like real action. It was really top secret at first. And there were a lot of moving parts to figure out. But we really have a solid foundation now and were opening up by invitation only. Sola, I want you to join us."

Sola sat for a second, just starring ahead. The edges of her lips started to curl up into a smile. "Little miss pacifist has had a change of heart, huh?" They both smiled and laughed the tension away. "Trish, this is exactly what I have been waiting for. This is exactly what our people need. We can be the real change." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You sure you want to do this?"

"Of course. I want to be a part of this." Sola grabbed Trish's hand. "I want to do this with you." Trish exhaled deeply and nodded her head. She knocked on the door and a small rectangular viewing slat slid open from the other side. Muddy brown eyes with accompanying crow's feet peered through the opening, studying them both.

"Yo who's the chick?" His voice was low and raspy.

"She's with me. She's cool, I promise." The slat slapped shut. There were a few seconds of sliding and banging metal bolt locks, and the door opened. A large, smokey room with about 10 or so people all turned their attention to the two who entered.

"Come, sit. Let's get started." Ameris was tall and muscular with a shaved head and a trail of tattoos telling a novels worth of stories down her body. She was standing with her foot propped up on a coffee table. She leaned over to the ash tray on the table and dabbed her cigarette out. "Sola, right? Trish couldn't shut up about you." Just Ameris' existence could command a room. She nodded her head to a couple seats to her left and the two sat down.

The room had a heavy feeling. It felt almost as if the fate of the south side rested on all of their shoulders. At this point, everyone had lost something. A job, a home, a friend. Enough was enough. The members of this newly formed organization were here to fight back. Ameris gave a head nod to a thin man with glasses sitting beside Trish, indicating for him to rise. Wren. He acknowledged, stood, and cleared his throat. He had a stack paper which he handed to Trish and instructed her to take one and pass it on. On the paper was a crudely drawn blueprint of what appeared to be a large house.

"Before we go any farther, we need to get something out of the way. If you are not willing to put your life on the line for every single person in this room, you need to leave now. If you are not..."

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

Everyone froze. Eyes shifted from left to right. Ameris held her hand up as if to say 'No one say a word. No one move a muscle.' Before anyone could squeeze in another thought, the door was hit with something heavy. Dust and plaster were shaken from loose from the impact. Quickened breathes became audible and looks of worry spread like a contagion. A few more slams and the middle of the door was ripped open. It all happened so fast. Armed guards wearing gas masks flooded the room. Everyone had a gun pointed in their direction. Then an unarmed man in a long black dress coat, also wearing a gas mask walked in. He gave a signal and 4 of the armed guards tossed smoke bombs in the direction of the ARATO members. A pungent smell filled the air and the almost revolutionaries began to drop like flies. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Sola regained consciousness, she noticed she was in a dark room with a single lamp hanging above her. Her hands were tied behind her, and her legs were strapped to the chair. She immediately began to jerk, moving the chair a few inches this way and that, attempting to regain her freedom. Sola started to cry as she felt her actions were futile. She looked around the room with her tear-filled eyes and saw some shadowy figures around the edge of the room. A guard rolled forward a TV on a cart and placed it directly in front of Sola. The man in the long black coat from earlier stepped into the light.

"You? I know who you are. You evil piece of shit. Samuel fucking Cortado." Sola spit towards his feet. "What have you done to us? Where is everyone? Where is Trish?"

"Oh, don't worry about them. They are sitting comfortably in a cell somewhere awaiting trial. You know, terrorism charges can get you the death penalty these days."

A woman in a flattering maroon dress stepped forward. "Dear, let's not rile her up. This isn't helpful for her transition."

"Transition? What the hell is going on here? What are you going to do to me?" The man and the woman looked at each other. "ANSWER ME DAMN IT!" The woman grabbed a remote on the cart and turned the TV on. She hit play on an old school DVD player. On the screen was someone that Sola had not seen in a long time. 10 years to be exact. A 15-year-old Sola was smiling back at her.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to say?" The young Sola looked off camera and giggled. Off camera, a man's voice was heard.

"Just introduce yourself and what we're trying to do here."

Young Sola took a deep breath. "I am Sola Cortado. Daughter of Samuel and Ramona Cortado. Dad, what else?" Sola looked off camera again to Samuel.

"Turn the camera this way." The camera panned to the left to a younger Samuel Cortado. "Hi Sola. This must be weird to watch from where you're sitting now. But you have been quite brave, I am sure of it. We are predicting that residents of the south side area are planning insurrections, and we needed a man on the inside. Or a woman in this case. And you bravely volunteered. You thought that having a kid go undercover would be enough to blindside them. We've given you cybernetic eye enhancements with a camera feed we can tap into. We're going to have you undergo memory suppression techniques and then place you in the most rebellious apartment block, hoping you can lead us to the most powerful leaders..."

"TURN IT OFF! PLEASE! This isn't real, this can't be real..." Sola's head hung low as she wept, memories flooding back in. Devastation hit Sola like a brick. What she felt for her friends, her people, Trish. It was all real. But this was real too. She was Sola Cortado.