Lanark_ a life in 4 books - Alasdair Gray [190]
“The Hebrew pantheon: Moses, Isaiah, Christ, Marx, Freud and Einstein.”
They passed through a group of young people who stared and murmured, “Where are they going?” “The emergency exit?” “Look at those crazy coats!” Surely not the emergency exit! Someone shouted, “What’s the emergency, Granddad?”
Munro said, “No emergency, just relocation. A simple case of relocation.”
There was silence then a voice said, “They’re insane.”
They reached the summit where water trickled down into goldfish ponds. The great boulder was supported by a surprisingly small pedestal with an iron door in it. Munro struck the door with his staff. It opened. They stooped and passed through.
CHAPTER 33.
A Zone
In watery green light, between narrow cement walls, they descended a metal staircase for many minutes. The air grew chilly and at length they came into a cavernous low-ceilinged place which gave a sense of width without spaciousness, for the floor was covered by pipes and tubes of every size from the height of a man to the thickness of a finger, while the ceiling was hidden by cables and ventilation ducts. They emerged from a door in a brick pillar onto a metal walkway leading across the pipes. Munro moved down this and Lanark and Rima followed, sometimes clambering over an unusually large pipe by an arched metal ladder. For a long time the only sound was a distant pulsing hum mingled with gurgles and clanking and their echoing footsteps. Rima said, “This bending hurts my back.”
“I see a wall in the distance. We’ll soon be out of here.”
“Oh, Lanark, how dreary this is! I was excited when we went up to Monboddo. I expected a glamorous new life. Now I don’t know what to expect, except horror and dullness.”
Lanark felt that too. He said, “It’s just a zone we’ve got to cross. Tomorrow, or the next day, we’ll be in Unthank.”
“I hope so. At least we’ve friends there.”
“What friends?”
“Our friends at the Elite.”
“I hope we can make better friends than those.”
“You’re a snob, Lanark. I knew you were insensitive, but I never thought you were a snob.” They forgot their misery in the heat of a small quarrel until the walkway reached a platform before an iron door in a wall of damp-streaked cement. It was the first door they had seen for many days with hinges and a key in the lock. It was stencilled with large red letters:
EMERGENCY EXIT 3124
DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!
YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER
AN INTERCALENDRICAL
ZONE
Munro turned the key and opened the door. Lanark expected darkness but his eyes were dazzled by an amazingly bright white mist. A road began at the threshold with a yellow stripe down the middle, but it was only visible for five or six feet ahead. He stepped outside and a wave of coldness hit his face and hands making him draw deep breaths of freezing air. They exalted him. He cried, “It’s good to be in the open at last! Surely the sun is up there!”
“Several suns are up there.”
“There’s only one sun, Munro.”
“It’s been shining a long time. The light of many days keeps returning to zones like this.”
“Then it ought to be even brighter.”
“No. When light rays meet at certain speeds and angles they negate each other.”
“I’m not a scientist, that means nothing to me. Come on, Rima.” “Goodbye Lanark. Maybe you’ll trust me when you’re a little older.”
Lanark didn’t answer. The door slammed behind him.
They walked into the mist guided by the yellow line on the road between them. Lanark said, “I feel like singing. Do you know any marching songs?”
“No. This