The Beanstalk

Sam peered anxiously through the dirty blinds, looking for Jack. She scratched incessantly at the sores on her forearms and trembled a bit, the beginnings of withdrawal from moonshot.

Outside, one hundred million humans huddled in similar shoebox apartments across the Arcology, trapped in indentured servitude The never-ending cycle of poverty and dependence continued, and the world hurtled ever faster into the future.

In the center under heavy security was the Elevator. It reached Up, beyond the clouds, to a place where nobody was poor, where nobody existed in squalor, and nobody lived on Arco-Authority handouts.

And Up was forever out of reach to people like Sam.

The door slid open, and a slight figure entered.

“Did you bring the money?” Sam whispered hoarsely, not wanting to wake her aunt, also an addict.

“I brought something better!” Jack said.

He held up a keycard.

“I traded the holo-unit for this! This’ll get us into the Elevator!”

Jack’s green eyes were dancing.

“We can go Up. We can have a better life in the sky, with Aunt Jen.”

Sam frowned and turned away, scratching furiously at her arms.

“Come on, cuz! Let’s go! Wake Aunt Jen –“

Sam lashed out and struck Jack on the side of the face. He recoiled, dropping the keycard which clattered into the floor vent.

“You idiot!” she hissed. “You were supposed to sell that holo-unit for credits! How are we supposed to get moonshot now?”

“B-but . . . we don’t need it anymore,” he sobbed, but Sam had turned away and entered the bedroom. The door slammed, leaving Jack alone.

Jack went to the ventilation grate, pulled it aside, and began digging through years of grime and rodent droppings. He gasped as his fingers touched smooth plastic.

Jack went Up the next day.


Word count: 299