Brave New Worlds

somehow all this was going on under his auspices. Nobody was paying attention.
    The next day, the train didn't show.
    It was very cold, and we stood on the platform, thumping our feet, as the day grew more sparkling, and the shadows shorter.
    "Hey, Butch, what's up?" Royce asked.
    "I'll check, OK?" said the camera. There was a long silence.
    "The train's broken down. It's in a siding. It'll be a while yet. You might as well go back in, have the day off. "
    That's how it would begin, of course. No train today, fellas, sorry. No need for you, fellas, not today, not ever, and with what you know, can you blame us? What are ten more bodies to us?
    Trains did break down, of course. It had happened before. We'd had a holiday then, too, and the long drunken afternoon became a long drunken day.
    "Well let's have some fun for a change," said Lou. "Charlie, you got any stuff ready? Let's have a blow-out, man. "
    "Lou," said Royce, "I was kind of thinking we could get to work on the hot water tank. "
    "Hot water tank?" said Lou. "Are we going to need it, Royce?" there was a horrified silence. "So much for talking. Go on, Charlie, get your booze. "
    Then Lou came for me. "How about a little sex and romance, Rich?" Hand on neck again.
    "No thanks, Lou. "
    "You won't get it from him, you know. "
    "That's my problem. Lou, lay off. "
    "At least I can do it. " Grin.
    "Surprise, surprise," I said. His face and body were right up against mine, and I turned away. "You can't get at him through me, you know, Lou. You just can't do it. "
    Lou relented. He pulled back, but he was still smiling. "You're right," he said. "For that, he'd have to like you. Sucker. " He flicked the tip of my nose with his fingers, and walked away.
    I went and sat down beside Royce. I needed him to make everything seem normal and ordinary. He was leaning on his elbows, plucking at the grass. "Hi," I said. It was the first time we'd spoken since the inquisition.
    "Hi," he said, affectionate and distant.
    "Royce, what do you think's going to happen?"
    "The train will come in tomorrow," he said.
    "I hate it when it comes in," I said, my breath rattling out of me in a kind of chuckle, "and I hate it when it doesn't. I just hate it. Royce, do you think we could go to work on the tank?"
    He considered the implications. "OK," he said. "Charlie? Want to come work with us on the tank?"
    Charlie was plump with a gray beard, and had a degree in engineering, a coffee tin and a copper coil. He was a sort of Santa Claus of the booze. "Not today," he said, cheerily. "I made all of this, I might as well get to drink some of it myself. " It was clear and greasy-looking and came in white plastic screw-top bottles.
    Charlie had sacrificed one of the showers to plumb in a hot water tank. We'd hammered the tank together out of an old train door. It was more like a basin, really, balanced in the loft of the Station. There were cameras there, too.
    Royce sat looking helplessly at an electric hot plate purloined from the kitchen stove. We'd pushed wiring through from the floor below. "Charlie should be here," he said.
    "I really love you, Royce. "
    He went very still for a moment. "I know," he said. "Rich, don't be scared. You're afraid all the time. "
    "I know," I said, and felt my hand tremble as I ran it across my forehead.
    "You gotta stop it. One day, you'll die of fear. "
    "It's this place," I said, and broke down, and sat in a heap. "I want to get out!"
    He held me, gently. "Someday we'll get out," he said, and the hopelessness of it made me worse. "Someday it'll be all right. "
    "No, it won't. "
    "Hi, guys," said Alice. "they're really acting like pigs down there. "
    "They're scared," said Royce. "We're all scared, Alice. Is that train going to come in tomorrow?"
    "Yup," she said brightly.
    "Good. You know anything about electricity?"
    "Plenty. I used to work for Bell Telephone. "
    Royce disengaged himself from me. "OK. Do I put the plate inside the tank or underneath it?"
    "Inside? Good Lord no!"
    So Royce went back to work again, and said to me,"You better go back down, Rich. "
    "The agreement?" I asked, and he nodded yes. The agreement between him and Lou.
    When I got down, the Boys looked like discarded rags. There was piss everywhere, and blood on Lou's penis.
    I went up to the top of the mound. All the leaves were gone now. For about the first time in my life, I prayed. Dear God, get me out of here. Dear God, please, please, make it end. But there wasn't any answer. There