Wake Me In The Future (14 page)

It wasn’t long before the others had joined me at the table and we were all enjoying breakfast and discussing what the day ahead had in store.

‘So what exactly are we going to be doing today then?’ I asked Earl, who I could see was eager to reveal his 'surprise'.

When he answered, his tone indicated that he was as excited about what he was about to tell me as he thought I would be at hearing it. ‘We’re taking a trip to your old city, Nottingham.’

My attention level increased when I heard the name of my home. ‘But that’s back in the UK; won’t it take a long time?’

‘Methods of travel are far more advanced nowadays Richard. We’ll be travelling to Midland city and go on from there. It lies underground between the old surface cities of Nottingham, Leicester, Derby and Birmingham.'

'So are you telling me there are areas of Midland city that replicate the old cities above then?'

‘Well, yes there are,’ and with a dramatic pause he said, ‘but we’re going to the surface Richard, to the real Nottingham. Ramoon has arranged it for us; it’s a great privilege, because unless you work up there or have a holiday approved, access is pretty restricted.’

I must have looked taken aback, ‘you mean it still exists!’

‘Of course, and populated too, but very sparsely and mainly by people involved with preserving the way it was before the human race became extinct. A lot of Cryogens work in the cities on the surface because they’re not used to living in confined spaces, even ones as advanced as this.’

‘Well, you were right Earl, this is definitely going to be a treat,’ I said, actually feeling excited, ‘lets go.’

I didn’t even want to contemplate the speed that the underground tube travelled at as it took us across the continents to my home. And like all cities in this world, Midland city was enormous, surpassed in size by its northern neighbour, Yorkshire city, but paling into insignificance against the super cities I'd been told about: Channel city which spread under the English channel and had areas that stretched as far as beneath parts of London and Paris, NorthAm city which took in a huge swathe of the eastern American seaboard and which was second only in size, on this planet at least, to the largest city of all, India Prime. Some cities on the other planets were even bigger, the largest being India Central city on Earth Three. These cities were so vast that even with the huge populations there was no sense of being crowded. In fact, it was possible to travel around for days without meeting another soul and the need to socialise was now satisfied by the conscious effort to meet others, rather than being brought together by commercial necessity.

We reached the surface using one of the vertical travel tubes and when the doorway indicated we could alight, we offloaded into a small anti chamber.

Underlying the pervasive fungal odour coming from the cold grey concrete walls that surrounded us, I could just detect the musty smell of dampness, forced into the air by the patches of sunlight crossing the floor. Like the still spotlights on a west end stage, these shafts of light poured into the room through the large picture windows that offered a tantalising preview of what lay beyond.

The light was so different from the uniform brightness that surrounded us underground, and when we exited into the full sunshine I found it was more mellow and gentle, and it reminded me of the bright hazy days of my youth. The white cotton wool clouds that moved across the late summer sky, and the almost imperceptible sound of the wind, gave a sense of the magnitude and power of Mother Nature. It dwarfed the artificial habitats created within the cities and I took a deep breath, and spun around to take in this new environment and its welcome onslaught to my senses.

We'd emerged into a wooded area next to a sloping hill and apart from the small grey bunker that surrounded the tube we’d just arrived on, there were no other buildings.

A gentle breeze wafted the midmorning heat over my face as if greeting an old friend, and the warmth brought back a vivid memory of stepping off a plane into the stifling heat of a well earned holiday. Accompanying it was the forgotten smells of a distant summer, and although I couldn’t understand where it could be coming from, I swore I could smell freshly cut grass among the heady fragrance of wild flowers that rose all around us.

Somewhere I could hear real birds singing, but otherwise it was quiet and reminded me of the times I used to lay in the middle of the cornfields at the back of my parent’s house, look up at the sky, and forget the world existed.

‘This is great, but it doesn’t look like any part of the city I remember.’ I remarked, ‘Do we need the tube again or will we be walking into the city?’

‘Neither,’ said Simon 'we’re going to take a Hover Pod the rest of the way; it'll give you a chance to see what’s become of the surface.'

'And what exactly is one of those?’ I said already bracing myself for another new experience.

Jennifer laughed as I began to realise what response was coming.

And Simon didn’t let me down by stating the obvious, as if talking to someone who had difficulties taking things in, 'it’s like a pod that you sit in,’ he said very slowly, '...and it.... hovers.' Then, and with a huge smile on his face, he pointed to the sloping hill and said, 'and we’ll be getting one from over there.’

As we strolled over to the hill Jennifer said, ‘the travel tubes and other methods of getting around are all ok for long distances, but there’s still the matter of travelling on the surface to places that are just too far to walk.' And then, probably making reference to the psychological needs she kept going on about, she added, ‘and while we’re on the surface it gives us an element of freedom, whilst reminding us of our beloved cars.’

We reached a clearing at the bottom of the hill and Earl raised his arm out straight and showed his palm as he said, ’Hover Pod to Nottingham, Earl Jeffrey.’ At which point an entrance appeared in the side of the hill and what looked like a giant egg cup moved towards us from the inside. It was ebony black and shiny and inside there were two beige seats facing each other with a flat panel to one side which looked like a control consol.

‘Shall we get in?’ Earl said.

‘But there are only two seats,’ I began to say, before realising I should really shut up, because Earl had already touched one of the controls and the pod was transforming into a more elongated elliptical shape and two more seats were emerging inside.

Whilst this transformation was occurring inside, four steps had emerged from its outer side, allowing us to board.

As we were settling down, I leaned over to see both the bottom part of the egg cup and the steps melt away to be absorbed into the section we were sitting in.
By rights we should now be toppling over
, I thought, but the outside was covered in a thin blue film of light which must have been stabilising us in some way.

'Please stay inside the vehicle to enable the barrier field to be activated' said a voice from somewhere inside the pod.

I was distracted by the workings of the Hover Pod and Jennifer had to pull me away from the side before a gentle swish brought a reduction of sound and stillness, which was the only indication that a cover had been activated on the vehicle. The force field, if that's what it was, fascinated me and I touched it to see what it felt like. It resembled glass but must have been a lot stronger and when I lifted my hands from it I noticed they left no marks.

'Wouldn’t you have just loved to have one of these back in our time, said Simon.

'Definitely better than my old Porsche,’ I said, ‘but I’d love to know what’s keeping us upright.'

'Well,’ offered Earl, ‘the blue light surrounding the base is an anti gravity field which, depending on the level that it’s set at, allows us to climb out of, or descend into, Earth’s gravity well. At the same time we’re moved horizontally by the magnetic attraction of a grid embedded beneath most of the land mass of the planet. And what you’ve just had your hands on, as you’ve probably guessed, is a force field.’

And with his hand placed on the control consol Earl said 'Robin Hood statue M1 – normal,' and we lifted from the ground to about two hundred feet before starting to move across the landscape.

'We don’t normally have to verbalise these instructions, most people use the mind link, but I wanted you to be able to see and hear exactly how we’re controlling our surroundings.’

'So what does
normal
mean?'

'It just refers to the speed you want to travel at. If you’re in no rush and want to enjoy your surroundings then normal is sufficient, of course during your journey you can alter the speed to whatever’s required. And these things can go incredibly fast.’

I didn't doubt it, and looked down for the road that Earl had just referenced, ‘why would there still be motorways if you don’t need cars?'

'There are no Motorways.'

'But you just mentioned the M1.'

'Oh, I see, we just use the reference if there are landmarks close by,’ and after a pause Earl continued ‘and there’s a particular landmark where junction 26 of the M1 motorway was that you won’t have seen before.'

The only thing that I could see was the vast sea of greens and rusty reds that covered the forest below. It was a fantastic sight in itself. The Earth, or at least a lot of it, must have been claimed back by nature…an environmentalist’s dream. A solitary hawk soared above us and banked on a gust of wind before hovering for a moment and then plummeted down; to what I thought must now be an abundance of scurrying prey.

Then on the horizon towering above the trees I began to make out a figure of a kneeling archer and recognised it immediately. It was a duplicate of the statue of Robin Hood that guarded the foot of the castle in the city. Only this one was much larger and colourful; the boots, tunic, quiver and arrow all being different colours as the kneeling bowman aimed his arrow into the sky.

It was hundreds of feet tall as we hung in the air beside it and the arrow had the words
'the future'
etched into it.

Before I could ask about it, Simon said, 'apparently a rich eccentric had it built in 2110 because he was so proud of his home city and wanted to leave something behind.’

And with reference to the Arrow I was scrutinising, Earl said, ‘it illuminates in the dark, it’s the only part of the statue that can be seen from a distance at night.'

The Hover Pod then started to move off in what I recognised was the direction to the city and I couldn’t help but think of the landmarks I might have recognised had they still existed. My old gym at Cinderhill, Bobbers Mill Bridge, and the pubs that ran along Alfreton Road into the city, where I’d stopped to drink on the way to a night on the town. I couldn’t see any of them. ‘I don’t suppose much has survived from our time has it?’ I asked the obvious.

‘You'll be surprised when you get into the city,' said Earl, 'most of the historically important and architecturally interesting buildings have been preserved, even after all this time. The rest have been removed and as you can see nature has taken its course and claimed back what it used to own. However, it is possible to ascend higher into the air and instruct the Hover Pod to overlay the scene with the view at whatever point in time you choose. The force field acts as a lens through which you’d see the ground as it was at that point in time.’

I thought of the Broxtowe Estate I’d been raised on and said, ‘Well I don’t suppose anyone would miss some of the buildings that were constructed in our time, especially those large council estates.’

‘No they’re not needed anymore, only a few of the workers actually live in the surface buildings, most of them live in local townships underground. The biggest population above ground is in the hotels dotted around, because as you can imagine, the cities on the surface are quite a magnet for tourists.’

A large smile crossed my face as I saw what was appearing on the skyline and I looked at Simon as if some sort of practical joke was being played. ‘What on earth is that?’ I said, pointing to the enormous castle coming into view on the hill above the city. ‘That is not Nottingham Castle. What happened?’

All of them were smiling now and Jennifer explained the existence of what looked like a huge medieval Castle perched upon Castle Rock. ‘The building that you remember was destroyed by the invaders from space, and as the surviving local residents had always been disappointed at it never actually looking like a castle, they decided to ‘
improve'
the new building and what you see now is the result.’

‘If you’re impressed with this Richard, wait till you see what they’ve done to Buckingham Palace,’ joked Jennifer.

I just shook my head, amazed at the scale of the metamorphosis. The castle was now a huge formidable fortress with battlements, arrow slits and a massive drawbridge spanning the newly created moat. It reminded me of something out of the Harry Potter movies.

The image of the old castle had been something of a joke to the city’s visitors in my day because where they’d expected to see what I was now looking at; they’d been presented with what was no more than a museum and art gallery. But they would have definitely been impressed with this, the latest incarnation of the castle that was first built for William the Conqueror.

As we shifted position and moved to hover over the Old Market Square it seemed to me, that apart from the absence of the tram lines, nothing had changed in the city centre. It was like going back in time. The huge stone lions, reclining outside the Council House were the most well known landmarks for people of the city to meet, and they reminded me of my first proper date with Helen.
If only they could tell their own story, that would be an interesting book to read.

The square stretching out in front of the lions was bustling with the annual medieval market which gave me the first sense of belonging.

‘This is a great attraction for the tourists Richard,’ said Simon ‘I’ve never been to Nottingham before but I looked it up last night when Earl told us we were coming. Does it look like it did in your day?’