Our journey was a silent one. With the shadowing situation now resolved Craig didn’t seem to feel the need to say anything, confirming my initial impression that he was generally a very quiet man. He led us here and there through the streets, then up a ramp that brought us to an elevated roadway that ran between the buildings about ten stories up. I had seen a few of these from the ground, but standing on top of one it struck me how ironic it was that this thing would even be built. Had they expected traffic to be so packed in this city that they felt the need for two seperate road systems to relieve the pressure? I gazed over the concrete barrier that lined the sides of this secondary road system down towards the streets below and tried to envision them packed with cars, horns blaring at one another as they wove through the crammed lanes like threads running through the eyes of needles. The reality was so divorced from the fantasy that I had trouble bringing the imagery to mind. I gave up on trying and returned my attention to the road ahead of me.

After a few blocks we came to a particularly large building that I thought must be some sort of convention center. In reality it appeared to be four or five different buildings, all of them tall even by this city’s standards, fused into one by several connective sections where the wall of one building would simply extend into the wall of the next for a few stories, forming something of a multi-story bridge. A large glass arch extended from one of these buildings to the road, and Craig led us through this to a set of double doors which he pushed open, ushering us inside. We found ourselves in a massive room with the floor raised in several areas. I imagined that the idea was to have these raised areas adorned with booths or kiosks, but bare as they were they simply drew attention to how empty and open the room was. A vast chandelier, larger than a truck, loomed over us, incredible in its crystalline beauty even though it was dark. I could only imagine what a spectacle it must be when lit.

Craig walked right through this room as though there were nothing remarkable about it and showed us to a staircase. What followed was a seemingly endless climb up dozens of stories of stairs. After the first thirty stories my legs felt like jelly, and after another ten or so I was forced to take a break. We had climbed fairly far up in the hotel where we had slept last night, and that was tough enough, but Craig seemed to be taking us all the way to the top of this absurdly tall structure. My mother and I simply weren’t in that kind of shape. Craig, who hadn’t even broken a sweat, waited wordlessly for us to catch our breath, and when I finally felt as though I could support my own weight again we continued. I was beginning to feel as though I might have to rest again when finally I saw the ceiling at the top of the staircase. The final door to the top story came into view before me like the light at the end of a long tunnel. Craig pushed his way through this door, and I went to follow him, but stopped in my tracks in the doorframe.

There in front of me, in what appeared to be some sort of lounge, were people. Not one person, not five people, not even ten. Dozens of men, women, and children were milling about inside. I could hear the telltale white noise of several different voices engaged in several different conversations, becoming unintelligible as they all collided with each other. I had never once dreamed I’d see so many people together in this city. The noise quickly fell silent as these people turned to look towards the open door and saw my mother and I standing there. Most of them looked surprised, although pleasantly so. I recognized Duncan sitting on a couch across the room and saw him flash me a smile. A man who looked to be in his late fifties or early sixties stood up from a chair and approached us.

“Welcome back Craig! I see you’ve brought us some guests, what a pleasant surprise!” the old man was jovial, smiling so widely across his slightly wrinkled face that his eyes were nearly shut. “Good to have you here! We don’t get to see new faces all that often! I’m Bill Evanson, one of the elders of the Red Crest. And who might you two be?” He extended his hand warmly.

“My name is Carmen. This is my son, Aston. A pleasure to meet you!” My mother accepted the handshake. This man had a way about him that made one feel immediately at ease, and his demeanor had disarmed her immediately.

“Good to meet you, good to meet you! How’s it going Aston? Why that’s a nice firm grip you’ve got there son, you’ll go far in life like that. Are you fine folks looking to join a squatter group? I think you’ll find the Red Crest to be full of great, down-to-earth people. We’re all one big family here.”

Craig and my mother gave him a quick rundown of what had transpired over the past twenty-four hours, and He nodded along, his broad grin replaced by a look of knowing concern.

“I see, that’s a tough situation to be in.” he said. “Well fear not, you’re among friends now and we’ll figure all of this out. Here, let me introduce you to…” and off he went, from one person to the next, unleashing a barrage of names that neither she nor I could ever hope to remember.

I decided to skip the long introduction. Instead, I saw a group of kids that ranged in age from about three years younger than me to about three years older. They motioned me over, and I obliged, joining them where they were sitting on a large, semicircular couch in the corner.

“Your name’s Aston right?” the first to talk was a girl who looked to be the oldest of the group. “Nice to meet you, I’m Sally. I’m thirteen. How old are you?”

“Ten.” I told her.

“Really? that’s surprising! I thought you’d be older.” she said, “That’s quite the coincidence. You’re super tall and you’re the same age as Kyler here. They must have put something in the water that year.”

She gestured to a boy who was sitting off by himself on the edge of the couch. He looked at me impassively, giving only a slight wave to acknowledge the attention. He had long brown hair that fell in flowing waves, curling at the end about halfway down his neck, and like me he looked to be a few years older than he actually was.

“Why don’t you two stand up, and we’ll see who’s taller!” Sally suggested.

Kyler shrugged and stood up. I did the same. He was definitely tall, but I could tell I had him by an inch or so, even before we went back-to-back. Nonetheless, we turned around and allowed the others to measure us up.

“Wow, that’s crazy!” Sally said when she and the others had all determined to their satisfaction that I was, indeed, the taller one, “you two are both absolute freaks of nature! Like peas in a pod!”

Kyler and I turned back around and he gave me a nod. “It is pretty crazy. Glad to meet you, Aston.” was all he said before returning to his seat.

After he was seated once more, Sally decided to introduce me to the rest of the kids. By the time she was done I had shaken hands with Bryce (twelve), Katie (twelve), Sandra (eleven), Carson (nine), Wilson (seven), and Allie (seven). They generally seemed like a friendly bunch, all of them so much more gregarious than Kyler that it seemed to me the only reason he was even hanging out with them was that he was obligated by being in the right age group.

We all chatted with each other for a while. The other kids were fascinated to hear about the outside world. They had some understanding of what things were like outside the city from other people who had moved here before me, but they still asked some questions that seemed strange and put into perspective how insular their world was. For example, they asked me to confirm the existence of giant puddles known as “lakes”, which I did, and then I tried to blow their minds further with a description of oceans. They said they had heard of oceans, but had trouble believing they existed. While I answered questions, I also asked a fair few of my own. Through my inquiries I learned that these people survived by growing their own food on the rooftops of the city, that the hierarchy of the group was maintained through a seniority system with people over the age of fifty being the de facto leaders, and, fascinatingly, that of all the kids only one or two of them had ever been to the ground level of the city.

“So wait, you guys stay up here all the time?” I asked, “but how do you get around?”

“Well, we’ve all travelled using the elevated road system a few times,” Sally told me, “but for the most part we just jump between buildings.”

“Isn’t that really dangerous? What if you fall?”

“Sometimes people do fall,” she said, “but it’s rare. We’ve all been taught the basic running techniques. Besides, there are several places where the buildings are pretty close together, so it’s easy.”

“But you’ve never been down to the bottom? Not even once?” I was incredulous.

“I don’t even like being on the elevated system. It feels weird. I’d never want to go all the way down.”

I sensed that she wasn’t interested in discussing this subject, so I switched to another topic. We talked for a while longer about this and that, and after some time I felt the need to use the restroom and asked where it was.

“Go through those doors and down the hall to the right,” Sally told me. “Don’t worry about the fact that there’s no running water, all the new people get freaked out by that. A robot will come by and clean up after you eventually.”

I thought that was pretty gross, but I didn’t have a ton of options. I found the bathroom and did my business. There was a bucket of water hanging over the sink with a spigot on it, and I used this to wash my hands. The lack of running water would take some getting used to, but at least they had thought this system through enough make do. As I exited the restroom and made for the lounge once more, I was stopped in my tracks by the sound of male voices coming from down the hall in the other direction. Something about the confidential tone of these voices made me want to hear what they were saying, and I crept over to the source of the voices, a door down the hall which was cracked open. I peered through, and saw Mr. Evanson and Craig talking inside.

“I hope this isn’t too much to ask?” Mr. Evanson asked Craig.

“Of course not. I’ll do whatever is needed for the Red Crest.” Craig confirmed.

“You still have a chance to make it on time. Take Jason with you and run over there. Let me know what they tell you.”

“Understood. You think they’re really going to make the offer?”

“I don’t know anything at this point. Still, it’s not a chance we can pass up. You do your thing on your end and I’ll do my thing on mine.”

“Alright, I’ll be back in a couple hours.” Craig said. He began to walk towards the door, and I scurried back to the restroom as quickly and quietly as I could, not wanting him to catch me eavesdropping.

Once he had passed by and Mr. Evanson had also gone away, I came out and returned to the lounge. I wasn’t sure what I had heard. It seemed innocuous enough, although the secrecy was a little strange to me. I gave it some thought for a while and decided it probably wasn’t worth worrying about. Besides, I was having fun chatting with the other kids, so I returned my attention to them and decided to put the conversation I had overheard out of my mind. For the rest of the afternoon and into the evening I thought nothing of it, and by the time my mother came over and told me she would show me to our new room I had all but forgotten what I had overheard.