"You're being stupid, come with us now, please." The woman repeated, all dark, serious and frightening, when Julia didn't move. She was undoubtedly the woman from the telephone call earlier that morning. The woman was wearing business clothing, and so were the men, but Julia didn't find the uniform at all familiar. She was sure that she had been lied to about where they really came from- they didn't look anything like any members of the Ministry of Truth that she had ever seen before.
The men were already moving towards Julia. She inched away closer towards her motorbike. One of them lifted his arms and pretended to lunge at her and, being physically diminutive compared to them, she flinched away, making them laugh.
"Why are you following me like this?" She called out at them.
"I've already explained this to you, and now you're wasting our time. You're going to come with us now." The woman said. Any pretense of cordiality was gone, she was all severity. "We're just lucky that we could locate you before you could hurt yourself."
Julia made the assumption that she had either been betrayed by the prole woman, they had used surveillance to find her, or tracked the mobile phone that she had stupidly brought with. She tensed while the woman was talking, preparing to make a break for it.
"We put out tabs for you, although it was unexpected that you would end up in a place like this." the woman continued. "You're so desperate to get away when we could just get this over with, this could all be finished by now."
The men were getting closer still. She was so angry now, the kind of anger that is completely unconcerned with physical wellbeing, she would not make it easy for them to take her.
She decided that she was more likely now than ever to catch them by surprise and she leapt towards her motorbike, while they remained somewhat relaxed in the belief that they had her cornered. They both ran at her simultaneously, so quickly that they would have caught her if there hadn't been a distance between them and the bike. Julia managed to get to it before they did. With uncharacteristic quickness, she even started it before they reached her. They grabbed at her while she accelerated, she turned a knob, making the motorbike ascend as it sped up, and to everyone's surprise, not the least of which was Julia's, she managed to clear the run-down fencing that surrounded the parking lot. However, she hadn't been able to get enough speed as she took off, so the back wheel of the bike hit the fence as it went over. The bike landed badly. There was a foreboding rattle as it set off again, it having fortunately landed on an empty block of land that connected back to the side streets.
The ground was soft from the rain, and mud splattered everywhere from the back wheel of the bike. In a moment, Julia was back on the road again. She couldn't hear or see her pursuers, although she assumed that they would still be pursuing. She threw her phone away. Her poor injured bike shuddered and wheezed.
Julia went back towards the main roads, looking for a motorway again, while she regained her breath. In the increased traffic, she worried less about being recognised. She found one without any trouble, following her earlier plan of going to the city to achieve anonymity, although it would be hard to blend in, in the muddy state she was currently in.
Some time later, towards the outskirts of the city, things brightened up a bit from the multitude of electric lighting that lit the pavement and bitumen as if it was day time. It stopped raining. Although it was so late, the city was busy and alive with blooming parks with flowers imported from similar climates, flowerboxes in windows and on top of fences, impressive buildings, and trees that weren't wily and menacingly close to death like they were in the prole slums. It was here that Julia's bike finally broke down.
The shuddering clanking increased until finally she stopped at traffic lights and her bike would no longer accelerate at all, but instead groaned at her when she tried to make it do so. She had to wheel it to the side of the road with strangers beeping at her and rushing by.
What will I do now, she thought, sitting dejectedly at a public seat, next to an apparently homeless, prole man, who had been sleeping there.
She felt very angry and afraid. She felt like not knowing for sure what this was all about was the most frustrating thing of all. She thought of that woman, talking to her like an angry teacher, and like she was a child, and she felt even more annoyed.
Disturbing Julia out of her thoughts, the man sitting next to her said, "Is that yours?" pointing to the bike.
"Yes." She said.
"Looks sad, a bit." The man said. He had a short, blonde beard, but what looked like a comfortingly friendly face underneath it, looking down at her with very blue eyes, and an expression both interested and concerned.
"It broke down." Julia said, as a meager explanation.
The man sniffed in agreement, "Where're you headed?" He said.
"I'm going back home." Said Julia, making the decision on the spot. Who were these people to scare her away from her own home anyway?
"How're you goin' to get there without that? You callin' someone for help?" Enquired the man, gesturing towards the bike again.
"I think I'll just leave it there." Said Julia, "I haven't decided how to get there yet."
"I'm O'Brien, what's yours?"
Julia guessed the man was asking her name. "Julia." She said.
"You looking to travel, Julia, you could use the bus." The man then, very kindly, and as if he would only do it for her and for no one else, went on to give Julia advice about where to catch public transport from. He seemed to know exactly what she had been through, even though she didn't tell him, and was deeply sympathetic.
"But if you're running away then, you could always come with me, I'll show you where you can get a good price for that." Gesturing towards the bike a third time. "I know a man as can repair them or sell the parts, I don't know for sure what he does with them, but you get a good price. You runnin' away on foot won't get you far, come with me then. There's cameras all over the city. There's one right there." Julia's attention was directed to a very suspect looking streetlight nearest to where they were sitting. "If they find you, they'll break your knees, I promise you. I heard some things. Come with me." There was such a warm way about him and he spoke with such concern, Julia wanted to accept. He looked like he was nearing middle age, his heavy eyebrows were raised questioningly as he was scanning her face the whole time she was considering his offer.
Julia respectfully declined, but offered the bike to him instead and he gave her his bus ticket in exchange, with a shrug and some well wishes. He then gleefully got up from the seat to wheel the bike away, thinking about all the victory gin he could get from the spare parts. "'Ave a good one, Julia." He said over his shoulder as he went.
It probably wasn't the best deal Julia had ever made, but what need did she have for money, or a motorbike that didn't work anyway?
So she followed the man's advice and went to catch the bus. He told her which one would go in the direction she wanted, and leave at the time she wanted. The bus was really more like a trolley with a motor. It ran all day and all night, the man had said. Its passengers were exclusively proles, on everyday apart from today when Julia was joining them.
As the bus finally came, Julia forced herself into a state of relaxation. But, she thought, if that woman in the petrol station had recognised her and had effectively turned her in, it was likely that these people, the bus driver and all the passengers, could do the same. But she didn't care, that's why she was heading home, Julia thought with the most self-delusion she could possibly muster.
The bus left the vicinity of the city. As it left, Julia looked back on the big sign of Big Brother, looming over the closest building. The image was identical to the one she had on her kitchen wall, the government-issued image of a ruggedly handsome, middle aged man, with the words 'Big Brother' in block letters written underneath, although this one was luminescent with back lights, making it all the more imposing. Even from such a distance, it still looked like it was watching her.