He had found them a large sewer pipe to hide into for the day. He had decided travelling during the day would be too dangerous. He had to find them some decent clothes to blend in with the masses. They still wore hospital clothing and it made them stick out like thumbs.

"It is not like it used to be. In the past few years, while you guys slept, a lot changed. We need to find supplies and have to get you guys out of this stuff. I am sorry I did not have time to get you guys clothes... there was no time"

"It's okay... She's really cold, though. We have to make sure she's okay"

Lee Anne looked at him with her blank stare, as she sensed he was speaking about her. She then looked at her nails and began to pick the dirt out of them.

"It's night fall, so we should have no problem breaking into a place to get some clothes. By the way... We should leave her here after finding something her size... She will slow us down"

"No way! We are not leaving her... She needs us. If we leave her here, she will be scared all alone, and if someone comes around she will be an easy target"

Doctor Hausen looked at Han surprised. He did not realize this man was going to be so headstrong.

"Well, if we are going to take her with us, let's try and fix her hair a little bit, she looks like she just escaped the lunatics asylum. And the hospital gown doesn't help either"

They stood and helped Lee Ann stand up, and began to make their way out of the pipe.

The moon shone high and the crisp wind blew and sent shivers through their bodies. He held her hand and squeezed it, in assurance that everything would be okay. She did not respond to it but he knew that she was already trusting him. They walked slowly, hiding in the shadows as much as possible. They arrived at a street lined with factory- looking warehouses. He remembered this street but it had not looked like this before. The buildings were very different... It had all been old houses back then...

"Wow the town has changed a lot"

"Yes, single dwellings do not exist anymore, but for the ones in power. What were single houses are now used for storage mainly, or for Corporation's agencies. Everyone lives in places like those"

He pointed to the side, and the horizon drew line ups of tall buildings. All of them very futuristic, made of steel, chrome and glass. Big windows everywhere... but it somehow looked sterile...

"How many stories are those?"

"All of them the same; all of them identical... They did away with individuality. It's unnecessary -not to mention impossible- to try and be yourself these days. You just mix with the masses silently and hope to not call the attention of the authorities... That's life now. Answering your question, they stand at thirty stories high and can occupy 2000 in each building. Nobody can live alone. The units are the same everywhere, made for eight people each, one single washroom... No hot water, power supply rationed... food strictly rationed (and it's terrible anyway)... And nobody can move to a different unit, unless ordered to."

"You mean... you can't go to the store and choose your own food anymore?"

"Not anymore... You are given your ration every week... If somebody else steals from your food, you're screwed. And the vegetables are often half- rotten already when delivered to the people. Meat? Forget it... There's no meat (or milk, or any such treats) at all on the diet"

"Holy shit!"

"I know... Depressing, eh?"

"More scary than depressing..."

"Should I go on? There's a general curfew at 9 PM everynight... If you're caught outside of your unit by then, they don't even bother to arrest you anymore... Now they just shoot you and dump the corpse at the local 'burial ground'... which is nothing more than a huge dirt cemetery"

"Good to know... In case I'd want to go to the bar and have some drinks"- said Han, but he already knew what the doctor was going to say...

"There are second class hell holes for the police and other Registered Workers... And a few high class joints... for the bosses only, of course. The masses (as the common population is called) have no access to any entertainment means anymore... Oh there's TV and radio, but a single station each, and there's no music or shows, just brain washing propaganda about how to be a good "citizen", that people are forced to watch and listen to, for hours and hours"

"And I guess political commentary ceased to exist long ago"

"What do you think?"

"Ok, I don't want to hear any more of it"

The doctor smiled.

They walked along the road, the streets were very quiet... too quiet.

"Stay close to me. Just walk normally. We have to enter one of the buildings on the side. It has sensors all around the windows and doors. But one of the side doors has no alarm, as it's used for dumping garbage. It's a common security black hole in all the buildings, as the garbage is dumped from all the floors and it would activate an alarm, but the 'citizens' don't know that, as they can't access the dump door"

"I would find out by jumping into the garbage dump"

"Too small for you... But children and small women try it at times... Only to find there's no way they can get out once at the dump. Just as there's no way to climb up back to their unit, so they're trapped. When they come pick up the garbage, the would-be escapees are routinely sent to The Project's Labs to be used in experiments"

"Cloning experiments..."

"Yep"

They followed Doctor Hausen to the side door of one of the buildings.

"We have to be careful" - said the doctor- "Patrol cars drive around the buildings all the time"

Han pulled Lee Ann closer to him; he felt her skin, she was extremely cold to the touch. The doctor managed to open the door with ease by using a red plastic card he had.

"It's good I've been a Project's technician for so long"

"And I suppose common citizens cannot be..."

"Registered Workers? No... They work, for the Corporation too, but virtually under slavery. Room and board, and that's it. Registered Workers can have medical care, as the Corporation needs them... People with school or some needed knowledge... But common citizens are viewed as disposable slave labor... The chosen ones in every new generation are given training or school... But for most of the masses school does not exist anymore. When common citizens get sick in any visible way, they are just sent to the Sick Leave Dispatch..."

"Uh?"

"A lethal injection is applied to them... Healthy organs preserved for research and investigation... The rest of the body is cremated"

"Ah... Looks like fun"

They hurried through the clothing, and as he looked through them he was amazed on how much the styles had changed. He noticed that all of the men's clothes looked plain and similar; just different colours. There was little style in the men's clothing, but there was a great variety of styles, items and colors for women. He also noticed that there were many more different dresses for women than there were for men, and he saw that women were still allowed to wear provocative clothes, such as skirts, hot pants, blouses meant to show cleavage... even sexy langerie! There was much more style in the clothes meant for the females, and Han wondered why.

"I would think that they would force women to dress like prison inmates, all with boring orange uniforms or so"- he said, pensive.

"Nah... The Corporation wants the males to keep being attracted to the females, so that many more babies will be born. So even make up is allowed. It's perhaps the only indulgence permitted, along with people routinely being encouraged to have sex... And the women urged to have as many babies as they can. Many babies are taken away from birth, and sent to the labs. There's no overpopulation problem anymore. The women get some treats every time they get pregnant..."

"Such as?"

"Fine quality food... Milk. Beef steaks. Cakes. Whatever they want, once a week, for the whole of the pregnancy. And books to read, sometimes. Books are a scarce treasure this age. The public libraries keep and distribute all the books... Old books only. The only new prints are of technical books, for scientists like me "

" You mean I can still read Shakespeare if I want to?"

"Hardly... Nobody is given a choice, unless somebody is in a position of power. There's a waiting list and people wait for many months to get a single book... Which can be any title, as they lend them at random. But some people can have the privilege of getting some books without having to wait. Pregnant women can have that privilege."

"Holy hell"

"And even though it's old, battered books only, people are always avid to get them. There's no other entertainment anywhere. Of course, all books even remotely referring to rebellion, religion or modern politics have been burned. Well, but I managed to hide my Bible from them!" - he said smiling, showing Han an ugly, dark brown volume of yellowish pages from his bag.

"Alleluyah..."

Lee Ann stood at a woman's rack and she browsed through the clothing and pulled a pretty flowery dress off the rack and pressed it against herself.

Han noticed this and went to her.

"You like it? You take it. Put it on... Let me help you."

She did not argue or fuss, maybe she was incapable of doing so? He removed the night shirt off and her soft skin was covered in goose bumps and he helped her dress.

"We would need to find her a few more things. Maybe pack a small bag." - said the doctor.

"Yeah... Let's keep looking k?"

She returned to going through the items and picked many out. He wanted to make sure she would be okay. Poor woman... A pity what happened to her. Doctor Hausen looked around frantically; he gathered items without looking. Han noticed this and stopped him.

"Hey, lets not make a mess... If we can leave this place and make it look like we were not even here, the better, right?"

The doctor stopped and took a deep breath and began to clean up the mess he had made. Han was correct, they had to take what they needed and leave no trace.

Han took the time to look for clothes for himself. He grabbed a couple of extra pairs of pants and returned to Lee Ann who had pulled out multicoloured dresses and skirts and blouses, and even fancy makeup items.

"Sorry, Lee Ann, we can't take all of those with us. You have to wear pants and warm clothes, it's winter time. We will come back for those later, I promise"

She looked at him and he could tell she was very upset. He noticed her eyes were beginning to glisten.

"Ok lets take them... Ah women!"

He helped her, as her hands moved slowly and clumsily. He only hoped that she would get better. But as her brain had suffered from lack of oxygen, serious damage was already done, probably.

*******

"We are set, right?"

"I think so"

"Where are you going to take us now, Doctor? All I know is that I am starved. She probably is as well"

"Yes, that is what I was thinking... Food"

"Ok... Let's go get some Big Macs and Cokes and stuff!"

"Yeah, right..."

"Let me guess... Fast food restaurants were abolished too"

"All big restaurants were turned into industrial dining rooms... but for luxury restaurants, some were preserved... for the top brass"

"Then, where are we going to get food?"

"The dining rooms are guarded by the Police. But there are many small eateries, those still exist, as many Registered Workers are allowed to choose where to eat"

"Oh... How considerate..."

"They don't want the Registered Workers to mix with the masses of slaves... Earth is a huge ghetto..."

"Those smaller places aren't under vigilance?"

"Not really, even though the police step in from time to time... Registered Workers are somewhat trusted, as they all have a microchip inside the scalp... They can be located "

"... and you are a Registered Worker"

"I know what you're thinking. Well, the chips can be tampered with, if you a know a bit of digital circuits"

"You cancelled the signal"

"The one inside of me, yes. But I duplicated the signal and it's always on, in my lab, so they think I'm always there. That's how I started to wander around, without them noticing"

"Wow I'm impressed" - Han said, mockingly - "What happens if you try to take off the chip?"

"Not possible, it is inserted by microsurgery. My brain would bleed to death"

"Gee, welcome to the New Age! Not sure though if I'd like to apply for a job with your 'employer'"

"If you stop to think about it, there's nothing new with it... We're back in the Middle Ages... Only the technology is new, the rest is good old exploitation of the man by the man. And human nature remains as vile as always, it just has better tools of opression now"

"Amen..."

"Now stop talking, and be alert... To get to the eatery, we have to cross that big avenue... Patrol cars pass by every three minutes or so. We have to move fast!"

Han breathed deeply, and got ready for more adrenaline spilling. "Ok, doc..."

*****