Space Invaders (58 page)

Ryder grinned and took AJ’s hand as he walked through the main room. “How about a movie?”

“What’s a movie?”

Ryder laughed and quickened his pace. “Come this way and see for yourself.”

AJ caught Ryder’s infectious excitement as they hurried through one of the doors and into a darkened room.

“They play this one all the time,” Ryder whispered as they took their seats, Ryder having led him to two of the more comfortable-looking ones. There weren’t any other people in the room besides the two of them. “Everyone who goes to school sees the film at least once. There’ll probably be a bunch of kids in here to see it again later. It tells the story of how this world came to exist.”

“You mean because of the Last War?”

“Yes. Now shush, it’s about to start.”

AJ looked at the large screen in front of them. He had never seen such a marvel. The sight of giant people moving about on the screen had him speechless. Several minutes passed before he realised he hadn’t taken in a word of the talking.

When the hour-long film finished AJ blinked back tears. How could they have been so stupid? How could an entire planet be virtually destroyed because of the actions of just one race?

“It was a long time ago,” Ryder said as they stood up and left the theatre.

“How long?”

“Nearly six hundred years ago.”

AJ couldn’t comprehend the length of time. In the labyrinth you counted in days, living from one to the next with no real concept of the future. The only thing of importance was your own mortality and the health and wellbeing of your family and friends. A hundred years was something he had never even thought about. Six hundred was incomprehensible.

“Do you want to see another movie?” Ryder asked.

“Not if they’re all like the one we just watched,” AJ replied.

“They aren’t. Most of them are stories played out by actors.”

“Actors?” AJ began to feel ignorant again at all the things he didn’t know.

“They were people who made a living by pretending to be other people for entertainment. They would take a story and act it out for other people to watch. Some of the people who took refuge underground brought everything they owned with them, including their movie collections. Over time most of them got added to the archives so everyone can enjoy them. Some of them are pretty good.”

“Maybe later,” AJ said. “What else is there here?”

“Well, there are the books, of course. So many were lost or left above ground. Some people wonder what knowledge might be rediscovered when we can finally live on the surface again.”

“Are there any children’s books, like the one Ashleigh loaned me?”

“Sure. Would you like to carry on our lessons here with one of those?”

AJ nodded. “I know it seems pointless since I won’t have learnt enough to please Blake before the week is over, but I hate being so stupid.”

Ryder tugged AJ round to face him before he spoke. “You’re not stupid. You’ve picked up reading far quicker than I did. In no time at all you’ll be reading as well as I do. Furthering your education is never pointless.”

AJ didn’t want to argue, so he let Ryder guide him through the tall shelves and into the children’s book section. The first book AJ picked up made him feel like an idiot. He had believed himself to be doing well with the lessons, yet he couldn't make out a single word on the first page.

”What have you chosen?” Ryder asked as he looked over his shoulder. ”Oh that’s no good. It’s not in English.”

”What do you mean?”

”This book isn’t written in English, the language we’re speaking, and that I’m teaching you.”

”What is it then?” AJ had heard a few other languages down in the labyrinth. Those who spoke them tended to reside together in sectors and rarely communicated with those who spoke the main language of the caves.

”I don’t know,” Ryder admitted. ”I only know English and this isn’t it. A lot of languages were lost to us when the survivors of the war came down here. Some of the movies in the archives are in other languages, but I don’t really watch them myself. Most people these days only speak one language, though apparently in the past it wasn’t unknown for someone to speak two or three or even more.”

”Why don’t people learn more than one like they used to?”

”I don’t know. It seems to me as though people don’t learn much of anything if they don’t want to. Take a look at the archives today. There aren’t many people here at all.”

”Most of us in the labyrinth can’t afford to come in here.”

”I know. It just seems a shame that people aren’t learning new things. I like to study the past and often read the history books down here. In the five hundred years before the war mankind made huge steps in technology and science.”

“Maybe too many steps, if the war is anything to go by,” AJ pointed out.

“Perhaps you’re right,” Ryder conceded. ”But then look at the centuries since we moved into the caves and see what we’ve achieved? Hardly anything at all. All we’re doing is surviving. The human race isn’t evolving or progressing like it used to. It’s stagnant, like we’re all stuck in a limbo until we can go back to the surface.”

“Do
you
think we’ll ever get back up there?”

Ryder shrugged. ”Not you and me personally, no. Humans generally, I hope so.”

They wandered quietly along the shelves, lost in their thoughts until they found some suitable books and a comfortable corner to continue their lessons. AJ cuddled up as close to Ryder as he dared, safe in the knowledge that Blake was nowhere about and couldn’t see them.

“What’s that?” AJ asked a while later.

“What’s what?” Ryder replied.

“That noise. I can hear something coming from nearby.”

“The music?”

“I’ve never heard anything like it.” AJ set the book aside and stood up, intending to follow the sound to its source.

“Someone must be listening to it nearby,” Ryder explained. “Do you want to go see?”

With an eager nod AJ followed Ryder once again until they stood in the heart of the music archives. AJ wandered over to one of the comfortable sofas and curled up on the cushions. Ryder joined him and they sat quietly letting the beautiful strains of music wash over them. With his eyes closed AJ could almost forget where he was as he lost himself in the melodies and fell asleep.

Ryder nudged him awake and AJ looked up at him with bleary eyes. “Sorry, but my arm has gone to sleep with you.”

AJ looked around and saw the person playing the music had left and the room had fallen silent once more. “Sorry,” he said as he sat back and let Ryder stretch his arm.

“How about something to eat?” Ryder suggested. “It’s long past lunchtime.”

“It is? You should have woken me up if you were hungry.”

“I thought about it, but you looked so adorable I didn’t like to disturb you. I would have left you even longer, except I think my growling stomach would have woken you soon. Are you ready to eat?”

AJ nodded and they went wandering in search of food in one of the two small cafés inside the archives themselves. The food wasn’t as delicious as in the towers, but the processed meals were far more appetising than the daily fare in the labyrinth.

After they had eaten they returned to the book section where Ryder showed AJ the huge globe of the world, pointing out where under the world they resided and where the other underground communities were believed to be situated.

“At least that’s where they were constructed,” Ryder explained. “No one actually knows if they are still there or not. They could have been destroyed by floods, toxic gases could have got in, or their supplies could have run out before the underground conservatories were functioning. There’s no way to tell for sure.”

“Can’t anyone travel to the others and find out?” AJ asked as he spun the globe round.

“Not yet. It’s too dangerous to open any of the hatches leading to the surface. If the toxic gases got in here we’d all die. It took nearly a hundred years to build the towers that rise above the ground and they were mainly constructed so the scientists can monitor the surface. There aren’t any doors out of the towers above ground and the glass is too thick to be broken by anything. If the science teams determine the surface habitable again, they’ll have to drill their way up to get out there.”

“We’re all trapped down here like rats then.”

“Better trapped in this underground cave system than dead,” Ryder pointed out.

“I know. I wonder what it might have been like to live on the surface before things all went wrong.”

“Probably not so different from living down here,” Ryder said. “People had families and jobs just as we do. They went about their lives, making friends and searching for love, just like we do now.”

Even though he suspected Ryder was correct, AJ still wondered what it would have been like to live in that long ago time. To sit outside in the sunshine, to paddle in the sea and breathe the fresh air—it seemed like a dream.

“And at least there are no wars now,” Ryder added as AJ pondered on the matter.

AJ supposed at least there was that.

They passed the rest of the afternoon wandering the archives, with AJ flitting from one wonder to another, eager to see all he could while he had the chance. They watched another movie, this one a romantic comedy starring a handsome man who Ryder confessed he had had the occasional wet dream about as a teenager. AJ could definitely see the attraction. He reached over and took Ryder’s hand, holding it through the rest of the film. Ryder grinned at him and AJ couldn’t resist leaning across and kissing him lightly on the lips.

The day was certainly improving by leaps and bounds. AJ wished it could last forever.

Chapter Eight

When AJ and Ryder arrived back at the tower they found Blake pacing the living room, impatiently awaiting their return.

“Where have you been?” he demanded the moment he saw them.

“To the archives,” Ryder replied. “Today’s my day off and I thought AJ might enjoy a visit to see them.”

“Oh you did, did you?” Blake threw the glass he held across the room, smashing it against the wall. AJ cringed at the waste. “Today might be your day off, but it isn’t the whore’s. He’s to be at my beck and call whenever I need him for the duration of the week, not gallivanting round the archives with you.”

“Sorry,” Ryder offered. Even though it sounded as though he was apologising to Blake, AJ could tell the apology was for getting him into trouble.

“Get out of here and let him get to work,” Blake ordered.

Ryder’s reluctance was obvious and AJ nodded to him that he would be okay. Once Ryder had gone from the room Blake sat down in one of the chairs and pointed for AJ to kneel at his feet.

“Did you enjoy your trip to the archives?” he asked pleasantly.

“Yes.”

“Did you see any of the movies?”

“Two of them.”

“Which ones?”

“One was the movie about how everyone came down here because of the war and the other was a love story.”

“How boring. I’m surprised Ryder didn’t take you to see one of the pornos.”

The word was unfamiliar to AJ. “Pornos?”

“Sex films, my ignorant little whore—films where men and women have sex with each other for the entertainment of others.”

“I’ve no interest in seeing women have sex,” AJ said.

“There are movies of men having sex with other men,” Blake clarified. “In another time you could have been one of those men. It was easy money for men who enjoyed spreading their legs for any man who’d have them. Would you enjoy seeing one of those movies?”

“Not really,” AJ replied. Truthfully, he just didn’t want to watch one with Blake. Had Ryder been asking, his answer would probably have been an embarrassingly eager affirmative.

“Well, I’ll take you to one anyway,” Blake said and he stood up and walked towards the door. “Come, whore, let me further your education.”

AJ tried not to sigh as he went back to the archives with Blake. It didn’t even come as a surprise when Blake made AJ pay for his own entrance fee out of his own meagre supply of credits.

They passed the continually playing movie about the war and the other films he and Ryder had picked from. Blake turned down a dim corridor at the end of the row. AJ must have passed the turning earlier in the day, but he had not noticed the darkened passage at all. Even though no signs indicated what was down there, Blake certainly knew where to go and AJ followed him into a small room. The theatre contained only a handful of seats. The room offered more privacy than the others and was clearly designed to host only a few people at once. Small tables were situated between some of the seats and AJ could see bottles of lube were put out for the visitors to use.

Blake took a seat and pointed for AJ to sit in the one beside him.

When the film started a few minutes later AJ was once again transfixed by the miraculous wonder of the silver screen. His awe only lasted until he realised what he was seeing and then he wanted to look anywhere else. Four men writhed about on a bed, touching and licking each other all over. Limbs were pulled and stretched as the men switched positions, taking turns to suck, finger and fuck each other.

AJ heard the sound of a groan beside him and a glance over at Blake told him the man was getting rather excited by what he saw on the screen. He slouched in his seat, palming his crotch.

“Feel free to do the same,” Blake said as he undid his trousers and lowered them down over his hips and buttocks. AJ had no intention of copying Blake. The men on the screen were meant to be arousing, but all AJ could think of was how he’d rather be anywhere else than sitting beside Blake in the overly warm theatre.

Blake soon realised AJ wasn’t getting off to the movie and he pointed to the floor at his feet. “If you aren’t going to get yourself off, you can get me off.”

Well aware that the sooner Blake came, the sooner they could leave, AJ slid out of his chair and knelt between Blake’s legs.

“Just your hands,” Blake said. “You’re too fast with your mouth. I want to last this time.”

AJ lowered his eyes at the criticism as he used his hands and fingers to play with Blake’s cock and balls.