The Island Read Online Free Page A

it. The noise, the smells, the desperation. He always thought he was above all that, but it was becoming obvious that he belonged with the scum in the streets. Even though he hadn’t been able to go through with buying the gun, the intent had been there and that made him no better than those he had looked down his nose at for such a long time. He wasn’t sure how long he walked. It started to drizzle, which then became sleet. Still, it didn’t deter the crowds who continued to hustle and scheme and beg and borrow. He spotted a silver-panelled van, a mobile coffee shop with a line of stools under a tatty red awning at the side of the vehicle. Inside, the van owner flipped burgers and fried onions on the hot plate. Chase took a seat on one of the vacant stools and ordered a coffee from the money he had scraped together to buy the gun. It was watered down and served in a polystyrene cup, but it warmed his hands and tasted vaguely flavoursome. He sat, lost in his thoughts as he cradled his cup. Two stools down, two other customers were engaged in conversation. Without any intent or realising he was going to do it, Chase tuned into the conversation. One of the men, heavyset and in his forties with a little puff of hair on top of his otherwise shiny head, was called Earl. He had dark skin and a yellowish tint to his eyes. He nodded and listened as his friend, Roger, as slim as Earl was obese and a good fifteen years Earl’s senior, tried to drive home his point.
    “You know it makes sense, Earl. Things were never this bad before that son-of-a-bitch Lomar privatised everything. They all but own this damn city.”
    “Come on, Roger, you know better than to listen to those stories. I see that Lomar guy in the news. He does a lot of good stuff.”
    Earls shook his head. “That’s all bullshit. Public relations, man. He stands there and smiles and lets them take his picture but he doesn’t care about you or me.”
    “They don’t owe us anything. It’s easy to blame them for the mess.”
    “That’s because it’s their fault. They bought everything. The police. The hospitals. Who the hell do you think funded Mayor Wilson’s campaign?”
    “That doesn’t mean a thing,” Earl said, shaking his head.
    “Bullshit it don’t. You seen the pictures of them, smiling and playing golf in some fancy-ass club when people like you and me are scratchin’ a living on the street.”
    “We’re the forgotten generation,” Earl muttered as he sipped his coffee. Chase thought it was a quite eloquent statement as he took a sip of his own drink.
    “Forgotten nothing, man,” Roger hissed. “Ignored maybe, but that son of a bitch knows we’re here. Make no mistake about it.”
    “What about TV? They gave us free TV. All of us.”
    Chase glanced at the countless televisions high up on the walls of buildings. It was true, they were everywhere. He sipped his coffee, curious to see how the conversation would unfold.
    Roger, it seemed, was not about to be swayed. “Don’t get me started on that. Lomar Network. Oh yeah, you can have free TV as long as you watch what they choose to show. No thank you. That’s why I read books. I don’t want to see what those assholes tell me I should be thinking.”
    “You’re paranoid.”
    “And you’re deluded.”
    The two men fell silent, and for a while, the only sound was the sizzle of cheap meat and onions. Roger drank from his cup, and then half turned towards his friend. “What about the island. Are you telling me that’s normal?”
    “Don’t get me started on that, Roger. That’s old school. A lot of these younger kids they don’t know nothing’ about it.”
    “Maybe that’s for the best. Talk about dangling the carrot. What a cruel idea that was. And who thought it up? Lomar. That assholes name is on everything.”
    Earl sighed and took a battered pack of cigarettes from his jacket. He lit one and offered the pack to Roger, who took one. The two men lit up, then, after exhaling,