Switched and Fears

by Shannon Rieger

  “He’s not an ‘it’,” I said, chuckling. “If you are going to show him love, you have to refrain from calling him an ‘it’.”

  “Right. I don’t want to hurt his feelings. Come on, Kitty, I will give you some water.”

  Ruby sighed. “That disease has been eradicated for years. The cat seems quite well and does seem rather friendly. I suppose I don’t mind if you decide to keep him.” I figured by the look on her face, she would watch this cat like a hawk. She wasn’t sure about its presence in her home or with her daughter.

  Amber poured some water into a dish for the cat. The cat didn’t even approach it. It sat and watched us as if to introduce himself. Maybe it had never had water from a bowl.

  “Okay, now that we have introduced your cat, I want to extend a warm welcome to you. Can I get you anything?”

  My home.

  Her brown eyes were kind. As she went to the sink with a plastic cup, her floral dress dragged along the floor, just above her black socks and running shoes. She passed me a cup of water.

  “Thank you.” I took a drink. “I am very pleased to meet you, as well.” I pointed to the cat. “This is Sky-Guy.”

  “Welcome, Sky-Guy,” the daughter bowed to the cat. The cat stared.

  “How do you know about me? Your daughter told me that you’ve been waiting for me.”

  “My husband, Meryk, just recently learned of your claim that you are from another world. Is that true? Another Edgefield?”

  “Yes.”

  “You have stirred up some panic up at the facility. We were about to get you out of there, and then we learned that you escaped. Oh, the news was raving about it!”

  “I just left. I haven’t even been gone long.”

  “Nope, and they are looking for you like wolves. They have even activated all of the Tactical Packs!”

  “What are Tactical Packs?”

  “Robotic creatures.”

  “Oh, I saw them in the tunnels and then—”

  “Mom, they were everywhere, clawing and scratching the buildings, looking for her.”

  “We knew as soon as we got word that you escaped that they’d be out and about, scouring the area.”

  “But I have only been out for a few hours.”

  “Yes, and I have been waiting for you since early this morning,” Amber said, as she sat with the cat.

  “We’ve been strategizing since we learned about you. I don’t understand how you ever got out…”

  “I escaped.” I crossed my legs. “Into the tunnels and that’s where I found Sky-Guy there. He and I ran from those…things.” Sky-Guy, finally, drank from the water bowl. Amber tossed some food to the floor and the cat snacked on it. “The facility was going to transport me to the Paragon.”

  “Really? The Paragon?”

  I nodded.

  “I wonder what they were going to do with you.” Ruby stood and put the kettle on.

  “Meryk will be thrilled to learn that you have already escaped.”

  “Those robotic—”

  Amber leaned in. “I call them Bionic Battlers,” Amber said using a horror film trailer voice.

  “Very scary, Amber.” Her mom ruffled her frizzy blond hair.

  “You like that?”

  “Sure do.” To Ruby, I asked, “How dangerous are they? Will they, eventually, find me here?”

  “Well, the original black ones record where they see you and send messages back to the authorities but by the time they arrive, the targeted have a head start. The newer versions can spit liquid to temporarily paralyze you until authorities arrive.”

  Amber added, “They are so much more advanced.”

  “Yes, they are. Now the packs have face recognition software so that they can tell if they have the right person, but your scent usually gives you away before they are close enough to see your facial features. They are also using solar panels to hold a charge longer, and are now white or even clear bodied so they are often hard to see.”

  “They camouflage much better than the black ones,” Amber agreed.

  “The newer versions make robotic sounds and speak to others, even when they aren’t in close proximity. They can call dozens in moments when they are certain they have their target.”

  “The ones that I saw down in the tunnels were black.” I bit my lip.

  “Well, that makes sense. They would camouflage better in the dark. They don’t use solar power, and are electrically charged. By charging some by electricity, and others by solar panels, they always have what they need in all circumstances and situations.”

  “But the powder stopped them from finding me?”

  Amber piped up and said, “Yes, we have ways to confuse them.”

  “The baby powder will work for now. They are so fixated on the scent that it can be masked for short periods of time. If they realize you have changed your scent, they will go back to where they had lost you, and memorize that new scent to update the criteria.”

  “They are so dumb,” Amber chimed in. “With a hair cut, a mole or even a simple tattoo and some makeup, it will make it harder for them to know for sure. Especially if we change your scent. Even a simple perfume can help. And I carry baby wipes to help clean sweat away. Baby powder did the trick today.”

  “True, Amber. But only for a short amount of time can those things help. But when they learn that you’ve changed something about yourself, they adapt the target criteria. So, we can cut your hair but as soon as they realize that you have done this, the new information will be added as part of the search standard.”

  “I know. But if we keep changing it…”

  “I just don’t want her to have false hope in being able to outsmart them. They have the capability to keep changing the target criteria. Takes only one to find out, and then the message is shared. New scents. New hair cut. A mole. All of these things are easily addressed.”

  Amber slouched her shoulders and crossed her arms.

  “Normally, they activate a few to patrol like the police. A few here and there. Not searching like you saw today. When they need to track someone down, they are dispatched. Now they are all looking for you.”

  “That’s frightening. I will put your family in danger…”

  “We welcome danger, don’t we, Momma?”

  Ruby snickered. “Well, no, Amber, we don’t welcome it. We just aren’t afraid to fight back. We’ve been preparing to stand up.”

  “Don’t the people in those glass areas hate having such creatures around?”

  “They are not usually lurking in those areas. The rich will welcome the creatures if they think there is a dangerous person hiding amongst them. They want order and safety.”

  “I am still surprised that they allow them to wander about.”

  “They have been programmed to be cautious of civilians. They had to prove that the innocent would not be harmed with the introduction of these technologies.”

  “So why have you been preparing to fight? Fight who? Fight what? The facility?”

  “Meryk’s network has been investigating suspicious activity and areas of the building that aren’t accessible to the guards and the warden who works there.”

  “Mr. Johnson. He no longer works there.”

  “Yes. And a few new guards arrived when you came along.”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s when we realized that you were special. And if the Paragon is looking to relocate you, then I am truly grateful that you got out.”

  “What other suspicious activity has been noticed in the facility,” I asked.

  “Meryk was informed years ago that the facility opened a laboratory and veterinarian clinic to help find a cure for the disease I mentioned. It didn’t seem to be disbanded once they found a vaccine and continued to run. Meryk has been trying to learn more about the lab, but his informant is not able to find a way to get inside. And with no movement of scientists or doctors through the main entrance, it is suspicious.”

  “Who is your informant?”r />
  “I would rather not say to protect him. Only Meryk and I know the name of the person.”

  I nodded. “That’s likely a good idea.” I sighed. “Well, should I change my scent now?” I asked.

  “Nervous?”

  “Oh, ya, very.”

  “Okay. We need to do more than change your scent. Amber, scissors please.”

  “You are cutting my hair?”

  “Too recognizable. Long blond hair. Yes, let’s cut it to your shoulder. It’ll slow down the creatures some.”

  “Can I do it?” Amber asked, as she ran to the bathroom to retrieve the scissors.

  “Nope. Nice try.”

  Ruby didn’t place a towel around me. I got no water or shampoo, or even a spray bottle. She began to cut my long blond hair. It fell in heaps on the floor. She cut it to my shoulders.

  “We could make you look like a boy, too, if you wanted to.”

  “Um, not sure…”

  “Well, Momma, when they figure out that she has shorter hair, we will have to make it shorter again to confuse them.”

  “Yes. When they have figured it out, we will cut it shorter.”

  Shorter?

  “Maybe if what we do with the makeup and tattooing isn’t what you like, we can alter the strategies.”

  Amber called out, “Dibs on doing her makeup!” She grabbed a baggie of eyeliner, mascara and eyeshadows and began to spread and pat it on my eyes and cheeks. “I’m using a lot because you have to confuse the Bionic Battlers.”

  She drew a small rose-shaped tattoo next to the eye and a mole with the eyeliner above the lip. I looked nothing like I did twenty minutes before. I stared at the mirror in disappointment.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Sitting at the kitchen table with a bowl of carrot and potato soup in a dark pair of jeans, a black t-shirt, black socks and a pair of comfortable running shoes, my stomach had stopped rumbling.

  “Bread, Saige?”

  “Yes. Thank you.” The bread was dense and reminded me of the prison’s. I dipped it in the soup to soften it.

  “Do you guys know how I came to be here in this world?”

  “You were swapped out.” Amber said, as she shoved another spoonful of soup into her mouth.

  I glanced between Amber and Ruby. “What does that mean?”

  Amber bit her lip. Ruby drew in a breath. They looked at one another.

  “What is it? What did I do?”

  “It’s not what you did. It’s what a person in this world did to you.”

  “Wait. What do you mean? A person in this world did what to me?”

  “The girl who actually committed the crime escaped…through a portal between your world and ours.”

  “Wait, wait, wait. A what?”

  “A portal. It’s another rumour we had learned, and when you told the guards that you had arrived here from another world, we, finally, knew that they exist. We couldn’t find anything to point to their existence. Now, we know. And now they know that the word is getting out.”

  “What is a portal?”

  “Oh! It’s a way to travel between the worlds.”

  “It exists?”

  “Yes, apparently. You are here, after all. When the girl decided to go through, it, instantaneously, traded places with the person on the other side, which was you. She has made a huge mistake because now it has come to light that the portal exists. You were never supposed to see the light of day.”

  “So, when she transported to my world, I was forced into hers, to take her place.”

  “Right.”

  “How is that even possible?”

  “She figured it out somehow. She didn’t want to face the consequences of her crime…”

  “So, she is making me serve her time.”

  “Not any more! You got away!” Amber cheered.

  “Right. But now they are after me. And if they catch me, I will serve the time for a crime I didn’t do or will be killed to keep their secret quiet.”

  “She did the crime and didn’t want to do the time,” Amber chimed in.

  I couldn’t get my mind wrapped around this concept. “Who did this to me?”

  “Actually, another ‘you’.”

  “What do you mean another ‘me’?”

  My eyes widened. “Wait. A ‘Saige’ from this world murdered someone, learned that she would be arrested, went through some kind of portal and then switched me to take her place…so that I would be blamed for what she did.”

  “This is what Meryk’s network is investigating. We think it has something to do with that lab that they are keeping quiet.”

  “So, the wicked girl is in my world, living in my house…and seeing my mother and hanging with my sister?”

  “I’m sorry…”

  “But she could hurt them. She must be an awful person. And she’s probably committing all kinds of crimes over in my world. We have to stop her!”

  “It’s imperative that you keep your voice down. If they hear you…”

  I stood and leaned over the table to try to understand. “You want me to remain calm when a mad woman is living in my house, as we speak. So, she is pretending to be me…she will go to my bookstore. Live in my house. While I’m over here, suffering the consequences of her crime. What a—”

  Ruby leaned on her hands as she clasped them together. “Okay, well, now you know the truth. We have to figure out how to send you back.”

  “Yes, and she can come on over here and meet my fist!”

  “I know how you feel…”

  “No, you don’t,” I complained. “My life was stolen. I had a guard whip the crap out of my back. I lay on hay in the coldest, dampest cell imaginable and I was terrified.”

  “I know…”

  “So, let me get this straight. Your husband and his network have been investigating the existence of portals, and up until now, you had no proof. And the network thinks that they are up to something at the facility while pretending they were only trying to find a vaccine for some disease animals were getting.”

  Ruby said, “In a nutshell.”

  I lowered my head and dropped my shoulders. With a heavy sigh and stony expression, I felt the loss of appetite. To be polite, I spooned the rest of the soup into my mouth, my feet shuffling under the table.

  Ruby tried to change the subject, “Okay, once you are done eating, we will change the colour of your hair.”

  “Change the colour?” I said, my face went slack.

  “Oh, for sure. We need to be sure,” Ruby said. “Amber, grab me some Kool-Aid packets.”

  “Kool-Aid?”

  “The fastest and the cheapest way.” Amber stood and nodded once. She took my bowl and handed me the bread that was left on the plate.

  “Pink, purple or green?”

  I chewed my bottom lip at her question. I closed my eyes. “Purple, I guess.”

  “You’ve got it.”

  Fifteen minutes later, I had bright purple hair, cut to my shoulders, bright eyeshadow, and so much black smudges for eyeliner, I looked hideous. Then I noticed in the mirror Amber offered that she had even dyed my eyebrows. “My eyebrows too?”

  “Purple eyebrows are so cool.”

  “Not for a woman of 26 years of age.”

  “It’s cool.”

  “Won’t this draw attention to me rather than away from me?”

  “They will expect you to be hiding. Not standing in the middle of Edgefield with the brightest hair colour imaginable.”

  “Oh, I think they will notice, all right.” I touched my hair as I gazed at myself.

  Amber laughed. “No, lots of us have coloured hair. You’ll see. Last time, I dyed my hair with beet juice!” She shook her head slowly as she examined my new look. “You look like you’re fifteen. Punk teen.”

  “Great. Just what I always wanted.”

  “Well, it’s not a bad thing,” Amber argued. “They are not looking for anyone who looks like they are in high school. So, you will hide just by lookin
g so young.”

  “Oh, nice.” I smiled at her.

  “So, when we go—”

  “So, we are not staying here?”

  “We have a few different places we stay to keep people from finding out who we are.”

  “They won’t stop…will they? That’s why we are leaving here,” I said when Amber bit her lip.

  “No, Momma and I move place to place, traveling light. We have the necessities in all the safe houses for the most part.”

  Ruby put the dishes into the sink. “Never has Edgefield had such a thing happen...an escape!”

  “And then there is you,” Amber said with a grin. “Anyway, we do have a home that we stay most of the time. But now, with you, Daddy told us to move about until he meets up with us.”

  “So why do you guys live here instead of in the city of glass?”

  “This world, well the one you see on the surface, and not underground or shoved off into an area to fend for themselves, is beautiful.” Ruby sighed.

  “I saw that world on my first day here. Glass buildings and lights.”

  “Yes. And you would not have noticed likely before your arrest that there are terrible working conditions. Everyone working ten-hour days, six and seven days a week. Even the children and the elderly are expected to work. That’s what is expected if you live in that area. It’s beautiful but the money made goes into beautifying it. Very few people have the nerve to question why the rich have so much while some have so little.”

  “So, you chose not to live there?”

  “We keep to ourselves. We work as needed to help our community. Our little community. We teach the children. We work our land. We make very little money, but it is better than living the fake life where you die young from exhaustion and stress.”

  “It doesn’t seem worth it…”

  “It isn’t. But most don’t agree with us. We are a strange minority, as far as they are concerned.”

  “Tell us about your world, Saige,” Amber said.

  “It’s wonderful. We don’t work all week, and we have long weekends. We spend all of our time together. All of it. The money we make is spent on making machines to do our chores. Vacuum pods to run along the house floors. A laundry machine that not only drops the clothes in the washer, passes it to the dryer, it then folds it, gears run to move those clothes back into the kitchen closets. Each house and store are equipped with a digital personal assistant which helps to set calendars and agendas. I make a list of groceries I need, and either I can shop for it, or I can choose to have them delivered right into the fridges or cupboards from the outside of our houses. Our houses are set up in rows so that the machines can work in the walls. It’s very convenient and we don’t spend time working as hard. We play. Coming here was a shocker.”