Excerpt – The Below by Scott T. Miller
Synopsis
Humankind rose from the carcass of a dead world. Lifetimes later, billions of people live in superstructures constructed atop the only habitable lands left, the Hawaiian Islands. Kilohana “Kilo” Ressler lives in Hawai’i City (known to the people as Big City) along with his illegal Digital Psychological Manifestation (DPM), EO, a pseudo-twin only perceptible to the host, designed during the rebuilding years to provide companionship in a world of horrors.
Kilo has managed to keep EO a secret for most of his life, but when his skills are required for a diplomatic mission in Kaua’i City, Kilo and EO find themselves embroiled in a conspiracy that threatens to expose EO’s existence and endanger the fragile balance of power between the island cities. The only place left for answers is in the depths of the superstructure the Below. As the walls close in, Kilo must undertake the impossible task of protecting his friend, facing his past, and holding a crumbling city together.
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Excerpt
A muffled beeping shocked me awake. I gasped for air, inhaling a mouthful of freezing shower water. I hacked out what I could through labored coughs that burned the back of my throat.
Again? Three mornings in a row, I’d been unable to keep myself present. Contemplative daydreams consumed my consciousness, ones that tried to make sense of everything while still withholding any answers. I hoped it was nothing more than the past week catching up with me, but Reklov and the discovery of the replicas crystallized doubt in the back of my mind.
I wiped the hair off my forehead and cleared the water from my eyes before grabbing the circular temperature gauge on the wall and dialing it all the way to HOT.
“Alarm off!” After a moment, the ringing ceased. I stood there, letting the water run down my shoulders for another half minute. It scalded my body and enveloped everything in a burning mist until I could no longer stand the pulsating.
I dried off and cinched a towel around my waist before shuffling my way out of the cramped bathroom. Steam billowed off my skin as heat clashed with the chilly air.
“You know there are better ways to wake up, right?” EO said from the other side of the slide-bed. His eyes didn’t break from the lettering projected from another one of his books. “I would hazard a guess that coffee will do just as well as burning yourself awake,” he said.
“You’d be surprised.” My gaze drifted to the sliding window, where the vibrant neon lights of Mid-City lined the Inter-District Highway below. For whatever reason, this view of the Hakkuin District drew me in morning after morning—an alluring, unfinished puzzle of something I could never quite piece together.
The Inter-District Highway pointed straight out toward the center of Big City, disappearing in the distance, and was engulfed among a blurred cluster of brake lights and buildings. The sixteen-lane street bustled under the concrete canopy of the interconnected superstructure of the island city. Along the street, the bright lights reflected off windows of apartments, restaurants, and shopping stations, making it impossible to look directly at many of the imposing buildings. The radiance of the city never dimmed or failed.
Far below, an indi-cycle screeched to a halt at the stoplight and sat idly as rows of the indi-, duo-, family-, and transit-cycles filed in behind it. In the distance, the cycles looked much like grains of sand flowing through the minimized gaps between the monoliths lining the highway. It often made me question whether there was a separation between the buildings at all.
The city’s life started to take form among the pedestrian walkways that created unnatural levels crossing above the highway. Hundreds of people strolled along them with business on the other side, seemingly unfazed by the odd magnetism of it all.
The longer I watched, the faster chilled air outside the window over came my body’s heat. Peripherals of my vision clouded with the straight Inter-District and the countless buildings reaching up toward Mid-City’s next level—the only things remaining. I tried to discern the pattern of colored specks through the condensation, but the harder I tried, the cloudier the puzzle became.
“Kilo!” EO shouted.
“What?” I turned to face him, confusion driving my response.
He stood partially obstructed by the book that floated in front of him. His curled hair, wrapped tightly in a bun, shook as he motioned to me. His brow furrowed.
I couldn’t help but think of yesterday’s slip of the tongue. Although I wanted to attribute it to sleep deprivation, I could only convince myself of so much. In some ways, it wasn’t my frustration, but envy. EO lived in my twenty-one-year-old body forever while I aged, grew, and decayed. Maybe he envies me, too?
About the Author
Scott T. Miller is an author, researcher, and educator. He received his PhD in Global and International Education from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and recently moved from Oahu to California to work in education. Scott adores science fiction and at every opportunity is writing, reading, and watching science fiction stories. Captivated by the alluring possibilities of science fiction and dystopias, Scott has a deep reverence for stories that explore the outer reaches of human capabilities and dysfunction and has been influenced by the immense wake of authors such as Philip K. Dick and Richard K. Morgan. Scott lives in Fresno, CA, with his wife, Bell, and dogs Hiro and Pebble.
