I could never resist sparing a few moments to gaze out through the reinforced glass. The view was really quite beautiful, especially at night. The twinkling brilliance of the city always took my breath away and the sheer scope of it was humbling in its enormity.
Someone shoved me aside and I bit my tongue to cut off a curse as I spied the bottle green uniform of the culprit. The Harvesters pushed their way between the crowd. There were six of them in all and they each held the same superior, arrogant look on their faces.
"I would consider a job in hydroponics if I didn't think I would end up like one of them," I muttered.
Taylor laughed appreciatively as the Harvesters turned off of the Walkway and headed for a hydroponics building. They did brilliant work and were rewarded with great apartments and the general respect and adoration of the public for providing the city with all the food we needed to survive. However, it tended to go to their heads and they were generally all puffed-up assholes.
"You could just work in produce. It's almost the same," Taylor said as we passed an exit for a produce building. The queue outside was already long despite it being early.
"Yeah, because distributing food is exactly like helping to create it." I shook my head and upped my speed as the crowd thinned slightly.
The skyscrapers within the city were allocated for various purposes; population buildings for housing, school buildings raised the new generations to be productive members of society, health and wellbeing buildings held gyms so that people could exercise, and so on. We passed by many of them on our way to the cable cars and people swarmed on and off of the Walkways at the various exits.
It took us forty minutes of switching Walkways and passing through buildings to reach the edge of the city at the south side and enter the skyscraper designated for 'Cable cars and Wall maintenance'. We joined the back of a line and waited for a retinal scanner to register our arrival. I huffed impatiently and Taylor raised an eyebrow at me.
"What?" he asked.
"I just hate having to queue all the time," I sighed. Taylor shook his head at me, he never found the city rules as irritating as I did.
I stepped forward and leaned into the scanner. A red light blinded me momentarily and the door slid open to admit me. We moved into a wide, open hall where the other members of the expedition were already gathered. We joined the back of the large group who were all converging around a small, balding man.
Professor Delo was one of the city Guardians, the scientific leader for Harbour City. He was in charge of any expeditions outside The Wall. Not that there were many. He was also the leading expert on the contamination and its effects so was responsible for keeping the city contagion-free. It was a job he took very seriously and, presumably, he did it well seeing as we were all still alive. He stood, raised up above the crowd, commanding the attention of the room as he laid out our objective.
"We are doing vital research for the continued prosperity of our great city," he called out in a rather wobbly voice. "But it is imperative that you all remain safe. Stay within your groups and maintain radio contact. If you think there is a reason to fear anything at all then check back with us before proceeding. If you or your equipment are compromised, your first concern is for the population. We can't risk any contamination entering the city."
A chill ran down my spine. In all the excitement about going outside The Wall for the first time, I had forgotten about the reasons for staying in. My mind brought up images of the contaminated and I pushed them aside with a shudder. There was nothing left alive out there anymore.
"You can collect your biohazard suits from the lovely gentleman to my left and sign yourselves in with the less lovely gentleman to my right. We will be leaving within the hour." As he finished speaking, Professor Delo dropped down into the surrounding bodies and was quickly swallowed by the crowd.
"Striving forward together!" he called out from the depths of the group as an afterthought.
"For the good of the population," everyone chanted back instantly.
"So kids, are you ready to head into the big outdoors?" Taylor's dad, Artie, appeared behind us and laid a hand on each of our shoulders. He was a tall man, thick with muscles which had softened a little over the years. His head was topped with more full, black hair than a man his age deserved and a matching moustache to round it all off.
Taylor was him reborn minus the moustache and with the lighter hair he took from his mom.
"Sure Dad. I'm gunna jump in line for the bio suits. I don't wanna end up with a gross one or something," Taylor said as he moved away and disappeared into the crowd to the left of the room.
"Thanks for getting me in on this Artie." I had the distinct feeling that I must have looked as though I was about to burst with excitement.
"No problem gettin' you on board, it's my numb nuts son who I have to pull the strings for 'round here." He laughed, a deep rumble in his chest. I ducked aside with well practiced speed as he reached out to ruffle my hair.
"You're getting too slow old man." I flashed him a smile as I turned and moved across the room quickly, leaving Artie behind and stopping at Taylor's side.
"Do you think they come in different sizes? I wouldn't want to go out with my ankles on show," he joked.
"More likely I'd be tripping over extra material in that case."
"Next!" a pale man called out as we found ourselves at the front of the queue. "One XL male one XS female," he yelled over his shoulder as he threw a brief, searching glance in our direction. "Move to the left. Next!"
We quickly shuffled aside to let the queue keep moving and had matching white suits handed to us.
"Enter the cubicles and strip off everything you're currently wearing. There are lockers out the back. Put on the suit - it should be skin tight but shouldn't cut off the blood. If you need a different size, shout." A frazzled looking woman with a bird's nest of grey hair directed us towards the changing area.
"See you on the other side." Taylor winked at me as he disappeared behind a grey curtain.
The suit was definitely skin tight. It was like a big, elasticated baby-grow with individual fingers lined with high sensitivity pads. It ended at my neck and ankles with a series of clips to attach the head gear and boots.