The Options Engine

Kilmo (United Kingdom)

Owen watched his girlfriend tuck her long black hair into a scrunchy as she slid through the knots of people standing between the warehouse’s pillars. At one end of the huge space a sound system had shuddered into life.
“Did you catch who the DJ is?” said the shaven headed raver in the tracksuit with twin stripes running down its legs.
“No, but whoever it is their tunes are banging,” answered Azure, tying her puffa-jacket round her waist as subwoofers began to pound the beat through their chests.
“Let’s start getting rid of the pills.”
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that,” said Owen. The strobes had come on by then and the faces around them flashed in and out of beams of frenetic light. “They better be the right thing.”
“Why’d you say that?”
“They’re not like they usually are, round, white, nothing special. This lot are shaped like pyramids.” He shrugged. “They’re the best I could get.”
“Tried one yet?”
“You joking? You know all that feel the love shite’s not for me. I do just fine without chemicals.”
Azure giggled as he kissed her neck.
“I gave some to the lads instead.” Owen pointed at a couple of youths burying their heads in the speakers. “We’ll get the verdict in a bit.”
Her lips brushed his ear.
“Remember, we need to sell everything we’ve got so we can leave, honey,” Azure purred.
“Don’t worry. I’ll shift the lot,” replied Owen.
“And I’m going to help.”
The music began to build, and Owen could see everything so clear in his head he felt like he was floating a mile up. From the bullshit jobs that ground people into mincemeat to the rent they had to sell their days for Motor City was a trap. It was only with the rig thumping in his ear that anything felt different. Still, they’d escape them all and he knew just how to do it.
Azure laughed shaking her ponytail down her back as she grabbed a handful of his hoodie.
Owen’s grin grew. He’d never understood how she could dance on high heels.
Before long they’d cleared some space and started cutting shapes; chopping futures with their hands only they could see as they listened to the music.

…

It was Sunday night when they finally found their way out of the warehouse and began to walk through the industrial estate.
“Owen, you love me, don’t you?” said Azure, turning his chin until his eyes where close to her own. “You’re not going to leave me here.”
“I do, and ‘course I won’t. You’re my girl.”
“Then where should we visit first? You know, when we get out of the fucking city.”
“Somewhere where it doesn’t rain all the time.”
Owen glanced at the clouds blotting out the stars as the first drops began to fall.
“I’ve always wanted to go to New York,” said Azure, raising her hands as she let the water run off her face.
“Why? It’s miles away.”
Owen pulled his hood further over his scalp and tried not to shiver. He hated having been born in the North.
“Exactly,” answered Azure. “It’s on the other side of the world.”
“Gonna cost a fortune,” said her boyfriend morosely before Azure pulled a wad of crumpled notes from her handbag.
“Why don’t we use this? My Mum’ll be alright about me not paying the rent for a bit.”
Owen grinned. It was a start.

…

They were entering the city when Owen realised something was wrong.
“This can’t be right,” he said. “There should be a taxi here.”
He was sure the woman he’d spoken to had told him the driver had arrived. But in the dim glow cast by Motor City’s streetlights there was no sign of anyone waiting.
“How well do you know this part of town?”
Azure looked around and shook her head.
At first Owen thought the noise rising into the air must be coming from a vehicle starting up. But as the grind of machinery increased he realised it was coming from their surroundings.
Owen stopped. The buildings were splintering, elongating into vertical columns whose windows were made of mirrors, and when they reformed he could see the road had too. On either side of them were blank iron walls where there had been people’s homes.
“Bu…”
He turned to Azure. Her mouth was hanging open.
“It’s happening everywhere Owen. Look!”
Owen followed where Azure was pointing. Whatever was happening it had left them with only one exit.
“Come on.”
Owen tugged Azure after him as he headed for an opening.
“Anyone give you something to drink ‘Zure?” said Owen, trying to ignore the hammering in his chest.
She shook her head.
“And all I had was water.”
At first as they walked through the ravine the street would look unchanged. But whenever they approached the lights vanished as if metal shutters had sprung up inside. It was like trying to find your way through a labyrinth that only gave you one way to move forward.
Eventually they reached a courtyard.
“I’ve never seen that before,” said Owen, looking at the building like a Roman temple occupying one side.
“Neither have I.” Azure gripped his hand a little tighter as she spoke. “There’s nothing that old in Motor City. And who’s he?”
On the crumbling steps leading between the shadows a man was sitting.

…

The stranger had the skin colour of someone who rarely ventured outside and as Owen and Azure got closer a smile like a crocodile sunning itself grew on his face.
“You took your time getting here. If you’d arrived sooner it might have offered you a better deal.”
Owen stopped.
“What would have?”
“The city, of course.”
“Look mate I think we’ve been giving some dodgy gear. We were at a rave and…”
“Quiet, you should be paying attention. It wants to show you something.”
The man was pointing at the skyline and as Owen followed his finger he fought the urge to duck. Motor City was unfolding from the rooftops like it wanted to swallow them alive.
He heard Azure gasp.
“It’s alright, sweetheart. It’s just bad gear. Someone slipped us something. Gotta be.”
But the stranger’s voice interrupted him.
“Each of those pinpricks of light represents a potential customer.”
He brought a pharmaceutical bottle to his eyes and gave it a rattle.
“My name’s Grease. It’s my job description but it’s also what people call me. Now, try one. I guarantee – you’ll make Motor City so happy it might even show you a way out.”
Slowly Owen reached for what the man was offering and slipped a pill into his mouth. The city was spreading overhead, and his pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks as he watched.
“It’s alright ‘Zure. I won’t let it beat us,” said Owen as a feeling like wings beating exploded through his body. Soon it felt like he was looking at a puzzle, a maze, that only needed the right key to let him and Azure find a way out.
Grease watched the bottle drop from the young man’s nerveless fingers and capsules spin into the temple. Maybe he had made them too strong after all. He needed the sacrifices to work for him – not be distracted. He returned to watching the view. Soon Motor City would get what it wanted. The stuff that made its arteries pulse.

…

Sunlight was just starting to enter the warehouse when the first body fell.
“I recognise him.” Azure’s eyes went wide. “He bought something off us earlier.”
“Looks like he’s having a fit.”
The next body to drop was a girl, and the crowd contracted like a starfish before the music cut off.
“We should help. Maybe they took too much.”
“Don’t be stupid. We were never here, and we never met them.”
“Owen? This means trouble doesn’t it? Real trouble.”
Azure’s boyfriend nodded.
“If it’s the stuff Grease gave us we need to get out of here before the law arrives.”
Bystanders were already hurrying to offer water to the fallen pair when the MC’s voice boomed, “Stay calm people. We’ve got some dancefloor casualties, nothing major, nothing serious. We’ve people on it. Make your way outside, and don’t panic. Medics are on their way.”
Azure was the first to say what they were both thinking, “They’ve already made the call.”
“Then ditch what’s left,” said Owen and Azure slung Grease’s pills across the floor.
“The cell?”
“Give me it.” Owen brought his foot down hard scattering cheap components in every direction.
It was too dark to see in the warehouse clearly. But as people ran for the entrance Owen thought their surroundings were getting colder.
“Where does that lead? I didn’t see it when we came in.”
He pointed to a corridor with a cold storage depot’s heavy plastic flaps blocking the light shining from its entrance.
They were headed toward it when there was the sound of jaunty whistling.
“Grease? What are you doing here?” said Owen.
“I just wanted to see how you were doing. Seems like you got off to a good start. I thought you’d do it proud. We’re all cogs in its machine after all. I thought it had made that clear.”
“Those people back there better not be dead.” Azure sounded like she wanted to scratch his eyes out. “You know that? The stuff you sold us was toxic.”
“Don’t shoot the messenger,” said Grease, spreading his arms. “I was just doing what I was told.”
Owen backed away tugging Azure with him. Any minute now the place would be swarming with first responders and someone mad enough to turn up at the scene of a crime they’d instigated was the last person he wanted to be near.
“No, don’t leave,” said Grease. “It’s all around us anyway. You won’t get far.”
Owen was about to ask what he meant. But Azure’s gasp as their supplier got close stopped him. He looked like the last pint of blood in his body had long since drained away.
“You’re going to help keep it running. Now come with me. Unless you want to wait here for the law to arrive?”
As Owen looked at Azure sirens began to blare outside.

…

The corridor seemed to stretch for miles and it was a minute or two before Owen understood what he was looking at when they reached the end. Azure took a little longer, and there was something in her appraisal of the dirt-streaked operating room that told him she was working something out and she didn’t like it much.
“I think it started when they built the first factories,” said Grease, gesturing at their surroundings. “It’s as if they’ve been dreaming and what they’ve been dreaming of is a machine. Except this machine runs on what it takes from us.”
He began adjusting the straps on what looked like an abandoned hospital bed and in the moments when his sleeves rode up, they could see the tracks left by needles on his skin.
“It likes to show you things too, people, pathways. How many choices you’ve got. It says it can help if you do what it says.”
Grease pointed to a bag of pills on some scales and then Owen felt a jab in his upper arm as the needle the chemist had palmed plunged into his flesh. A moment after he hit the ground and darkness closed in Azure dropped beside him.
When he was sure the couple were unconscious, Grease listened to the sound of machinery rumbling deep inside the city.
“It’s alright. I’ll do what you say. I haven’t got any choice, have I? And the next batch will be better. You can have as many of them as you want for all I care.”

…

Owen could barely move, and he was sweating enough for the shirt he’d bought to get into the commercial club to get stuck to his skin.
“What do you think?” he shouted in Azure’s ear as dancers flung their arms into the air like a tide.
“It’ll do,” answered his girlfriend.
“If you’re happy, I’m happy. But we’re going to have to be fast. There are rumours; Grease’s pills are getting a bad reputation. After this we’ll vanish. I’ve something on me to make sure we don’t get sick.”
Owen opened his hand and displayed the ampoule he’d stolen. Whatever Grease had given them they’d quickly found they needed it if they didn’t want to end up twitching on the floor.
“You know, I’ve been thinking,” he said to Azure. “We should kill him.”
Owen had the look on his face that had been there ever since he’d left the room at Motor City’s heart. Life seemed different now, darker, and less full of problems. Grease was in the way of their plans; and that could not be allowed to happen.
He scanned the ranks of potential customers.
“But we’ll think about how to do that later.”
Azure nodded, and they began to work the crowd.

…

“It’s nearly ready,” said Grease.
Owen shook his head. “I’m not helping you anymore and neither’s Azure.”
“Yeah, you leave us alone,” joined in his girlfriend.
It had taken them a fortnight of hiding, sweating, and bad dreams but they’d gotten clean of Grease’s gear eventually. Although it hadn’t meant the relationship was over. It seemed wherever they went the streets all led to him.
This time Grease found them in an abandoned car factory.
“Haven’t you been listening?” said Grease, pointing at the silhouettes of robotic arms that looked ready to dissect the half-assembled automobiles. “There’s no stopping it. You need to accept there’s no future unless Motor City allows it.”
“You should listen to yourself,” Owen’s voice was taught like he was an inch from showing Grease what was hiding behind his eyes. “It’s like you think it can hear you.”
“Oh, it can. How do you think it knows where you are? But you should look at something. This was taken after you left the last club I sent you to.”
He showed Owen his phone and watched the expression on the youth’s face as disco goers gyrated through the strobes on a wall of speakers more than twice the height of the nearest dancer.
When the music changed Owen spoke.
“That sounds like an engine starting.”
A figure at the front was jumping around so hard it looked like he was going to hurt himself.
“Christ.”
Grease nodded.
“The latest batch worked much better than the last. But that’s not all… wait.”
Owen’s face grew pale as first one raver and then another followed the victim’s lead. Soon strips of flesh were sloughing off them and the grins on the crowd’s fleshless faces were the widest they would ever be.
“Motor City. I told you. There’s a reason it’s called that,” murmured Grease with his usual crocodile smile. “Wait this is the best part.”
First one then another of the skeletons began to crumble until there was nothing left except smoke drifting through the lights.
Grease sat back with his head against a wall.
“You need to visit every venue I can find. It always wants more.”
Owen felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise as the arms of the car assembly plant began to move.

…

Owen could feel the rooftop shake as the bass from the rave spread through the air. It had been a good night, a good year he decided. He’d done well since he’d started working on his own and he liked to think he wore his newfound wealth with style. He was watching the city’s lights when he noticed the billboard on the building opposite.
“…Owen…”
His mouth dropped open. The twenty-foot-high air stewardess looked like she was staring out of a window that left her feet on a New York promenade. For a moment he toyed with the idea of asking her how she’d noticed him from so far away. Owen watched as her hair darkened and finally he realised he was looking at Azure.
She beckoned and Owen’s feet brought him to the warehouse’s edge.
“There you are. Why did you leave?” said Owen, reaching out as if by stretching a little further he could touch her. “I promise I’ll stop. You never gave me a chance to get us out of here.”
Azure’s smile widened.
“You’re hallucinating,” said Owen, trying to pull himself together.
But they’d had plans. He could remember that much, dreams, and something bad had happened…
He shook his head. Motor City got what it wanted. That was what was important, more than anything in his life he wanted to please it. But as the buildings began to rise like the towers of a castle he realised it was offering him a choice.
Owen considered asking Azure for her help. But he didn’t need to do that, did he? All he had to do was go to her. Kind of soothing thought Owen as with a feeling like he’d just made the best decision in a long time he stepped off the roof and Motor City swallowed him whole.