by Jane Hinchey
We continued to observe. Alrik was right. It looked like the table doubled as a touchscreen, which patrons were using to order their food. They pressed their palms to an area in the centre of the table—possibly making payment?
“We're screwed,” I sighed.
“Maybe not,” Alrik said. “That table at the back—it flickers, and I've been watching the people sitting there. They're having trouble with it. It may be faulty. We could use that to our advantage. We just need to make sure we get seated at that table.”
“Are you sure?” I bit my lip. “This seems awfully risky.”
“You need food. I need food. I've seen no other sources so far. There have been no fields with crops, no trees with fruit.”
“You've got a point.”
Alrik placed a hand on my shoulder. “Relax. It'll be fine. They're not looking for us here. In fact, they don't really know what they're looking for.”
It was just a guess, but he sounded confident.
“So how do we get in?” I asked. “Look. They have to place their hand on that panel to get the door to open.”
“We’ll piggy back on someone else. We have to move fast. Timing is everything. We need to get in as soon as that table vacates, so we need someone to come in or out at that time as well.”
We waited for half an hour before an opportunity presented itself. A young couple walking hand-in-hand approached the café. By then, the faulty table had been vacant for a little while, but no one had entered or left the café, leaving us stranded outside, biding our time.
Grabbing my hand, Alrik moved swiftly across the street, keeping to the shadows as best he could, keeping as quiet as possible.
The couple stopped at the door and the man pressed his palm to it. The door whooshed open and they stepped inside. We followed right behind them, just squeezing in before the doors slid shut again. Thankfully, no alarms went off indicating we'd entered unauthorized.
Alrik led the way, zig zagging through the tables to reach the faulty one at the back. He slid into the chair against the wall and I chose the one next to him. Both of them had an excellent view of the café and the street.
Alrik looked down at the table. “Let's figure out how to work this thing.”
Luck was with us. As soon as we touched the tabletop, it lit up like a computer screen, showing today’s menu. I could have cried. All the food was familiar, although I did notice, as I flicked through the options, that there was no meat.
Choosing a pasta dish, I placed my hand on the handprint that was now visible in the centre of the table. Of course, nothing happened.
“Play it cool,” Alrik muttered, kneeing the table hard from underneath. The tabletop glitzed and shimmered, making a buzzing noise before settling down.
“I don't understand why it's not working, sweetheart.” I plastered a puzzled look on my face and spoke loudly. “You try it.”
Alrik winked at me and placed his hand on the imprint in the centre of the table, pressing harder than was necessary. Again the table flickered and buzzed.
A server hurried over to us. “I'm so sorry. We've been having trouble with this table all evening. I'm going to have to close it down.”
“Oh, but you don't have any other tables free,” I said with a pout. “I was really looking forward to eating here tonight.”
“Of course, ma'am, you may dine at the table, I still have to shut it off.” She leaned down to pull the plug, and the tabletop went dark. “Your meal is on us tonight. We're sorry for the inconvenience.”
I couldn't help grinning as the server hurried back to the kitchen. “We did it!”
“Yes,” Alrik said, “but we're going to have to come up with a better solution. That isn't going to work all the time.”
“True.”
Our meals were delivered in record time. The pasta didn’t taste the same as I remembered, but it was still delicious and we both cleaned our plates. The server had also brought us a free glass of wine each.
“Mmmmm. This is delicious,” I said, closing my eyes as the cool wine flowed down my throat.
“I've never tasted anything like it before,” Alrik admitted. “I can taste a hint of fruit, but it is not strong. Almost bitter.”
“Wine is made from the juice of grapes, which is a fruit here on Earth. There's more to the process, of course, but if Earth still has wine, then we must still have the capability to grow fruit and vegetables.”
We lingered over our meal, watching the others and listening in on conversations, but not learning anything useful. Pleasantly full and starting to feel sleepy, we finally decided it was time to go. Except the door refused to open. Shit. We hadn't noticed that you had to put your hand on the panel to get out as well as in.
“We're not having much luck tonight, babe.” I laughed loudly, throwing an alarmed look over my shoulder at Alrik and placing my hand on the panel, knowing it wouldn't open for me.
An elderly woman approached, smiling at us with a shrewd look in her eyes. “All this tracking technology is wonderful ... when it works.”
“Er, yes. Yes, it is.”
“Maybe you should get your chip looked at, my dear. I couldn't help but notice you had trouble at your table, too. Perhaps your chip is faulty and you need an upgrade.”
I nodded. “My chip. Yes. Yes, I'll get it looked at.”
“Well, I wouldn't like to see you get assessed by the police and found with a faulty chip. You know what that means.”
“Um, what?”
“Well, if you have a faulty chip—or no chip at all—you get taken to Quarantine.”
“Quarantine?”
“Well, yes, you've heard of Quarantine, my dear, surely? And we all know you don't want to go there. They do all sorts of horrible experiments on you. I don't know why they call it Quarantine when we all know it's some kind of weird science lab, all for the purpose of improving mankind.”
“Yes, yes, of course. Can I just ask, though ... are there really people without chips? How does that happen?”
“Some individuals object to being spied upon twenty-four seven by the government, so they go to back-street techs to have the chip removed. Apparently there's quite the underground movement.” The old woman shrugged. “It’s all well and good until you get caught without a chip. I wouldn't like to see that happen to you, dear. You seem like a lovely young woman. And your handsome companion here … my, so tall. Yes, you should be careful.”
Her eyes bore into me intently, as if to push home her message. Message received. I nodded vigorously. The woman smiled and pressed her own palm to the panel next to the door, and it slid open.
“Thank you.” I smiled shakily, realising we'd just had a very close call. But we’d also gleaned some useful information.
“It is my pleasure, my dear. Good luck to you.” The elderly woman turned and walked away.
“Let's get out of here.” Alrik took my hand and briskly led me away. I felt a sense of relief when we turned off the street the café was located on.
“They're all chipped?” I whispered.
“Seems so. I assume it's placed in the hand somewhere—maybe the palm or the back of the hand.”
“We're screwed.”
“You heard what the old woman said. There are renegades who remove chips. Black market activity. Maybe we can get a chip inserted.”
“How would we find these renegades?”
“They'd be off the grid. Away from the city, back where we've already been.”
“We did say we were going to camp back there tonight, anyway.”
“Let's head back, find a place to settle in for the rest of the night, think about our next move,” Alrik said. “Tomorrow we can talk to some of the people who live on the edge, see what we can find out.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I woke up with a bladder ready to explode. Easing out of my sleeping bag, careful not to wake Alrik, who slept soundly beside me, I crept through the abandoned house we'd settled in the night before. It wa
s set back from the road, and while there were still some occupied houses around us, Alrik thought it a safe place to rest up for the remainder of the night.
I sat on the back step to slip my boots on before scurrying through the bushes to find a suitable place to squat. I was on my way back to the house when I was spear-tackled from the side.
We hit the ground silently. I rolled, springing back to my feet and attacking. I thought he was a cop; it was hard to tell with everything moving so fast, but it looked like he was wearing a uniform. We were well matched, even though he was taller and heavier than me. He wasn't as big as Alrik, and having sparred with Alrik, I almost felt like I had the advantage.
That was, until the bastard pulled a weapon and shot me. It jolted through my body and stung like a bitch, knocking the breath out of me. I slid along the ground on my back, winded, nerve endings tingling. Son of a bitch.
The cop positioned himself above me, gun aimed at my head, light shining directly in my face.
“I.D. Now!” he demanded.
“Geez, point the light somewhere else, will ya?” I complained, raising a hand to block the light.
The light moved from my face and I dropped my arm, squinting at the shadow of the man behind the gun.
“Sierra?” It sounded like he'd been chewing nails, his voice was so rough and raspy. Like my brother sounded when he was upset and trying not to show it.
“Daniel? Is that you?” I started to sit up, but he pushed me back down with his boot on my chest.
“Freeze! Don't move. Just ... don't move.”
I froze. So did Alrik, who I spotted out of the corner of my eye. I glanced at him, but he was watching the man who may or may not be my brother.
“Daniel?” I tried again. “It's me. Sierra. Your sister. That is, assuming you are Daniel Walker?”
He didn't respond, but his gun hand trembled ever so slightly. Good sign or not, I decided to keep talking.
“My name's Sierra Walker. I disappeared from this Earth on the seventeenth of May, two thousand and sixteen. At the time I was on duty, a patrol officer with Redmeadows Police. I was chasing a drug dealer down an alley. The alley between the Hi Five Music store and CheapSkate, the two-dollar store. I can't recall the name of the alley.”
“Muskeet. Muskeet Alley.” His voice was barely audible.
“Yeah, that's it. Muskeet Alley. Is it really you, Daniel?”
Daniel shook his head. “How can you be Sierra Walker? She disappeared thirty years ago. She was twenty-six years old. She'd be fifty-six by now if she was still alive.”
“I'm still alive Daniel,” I said. “It's me. Truly. Remember when I was six and you were eight and we were riding our bikes in the street and I threw a rock at you because you beat me in the race? It hit you on the eyebrow and you bled like crazy. I was so scared, I raced home and hid. You told Mum you'd fallen off your bike. You still have that scar. At least you did when I last saw you.”
“Jesus fucking Christ.” He lowered his gun. “How is this even possible?”
“Would the words ‘alien abduction and space travel’ sound too far-fetched?”
Alrik sucked in a breath, drawing my attention back to him. I shook my head at him. I had this. This was my brother. My Daniel.
The gun whipped back up, aimed at Alrik.
“And who the fuck are you?” Daniel demanded.
“Daniel!” I scolded. “He's with me. This is Alrik. He's my ... friend. He's been helping me.”
Moments passed in silence. I could practically see the cogs turning in Daniel’s mind, processing what I'd told him. While his gun was still trained on Alrik, I slowly eased to my feet. Daniel watched, but didn't lower the gun. I stepped in front of Alrik, who growled in protest.
Carefully, I placed my hand on the top of the gun, forcing Daniel to lower it.
“We don't mean you, or anyone, any harm,” I assured him.
Daniel sucked in a deep breath, blowing it out on a sigh. “We'd better get out of here. They're doing a grid by grid search.”
“How did you find us?”
“The disruption in the dome tipped us off. Then the alarm at Mum's place. I figured I'd let the others search the woods first and I'd go to Mum's. I picked up your scent there and finally tracked you here. You’ve covered a lot of ground. I almost lost you a time or two.”
I wrinkled my nose. “What do you mean, you picked up our scent? You smelled us?”
“Not me. This.” He held up a round blue object the size of a tennis ball.
“What is it?”
Daniel tucked the ball away into a pocket in his police vest. “Sort of like an electronic version of a sniffer dog. We don’t have those anymore, so we needed something to replace it.”
“Why don’t you have sniffer dogs?” I glanced around, realizing for the first time that I hadn’t heard any birdsong since I’d returned. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen a single animal since I’ve been back.”
“That’s because there are none,” Daniel said. “After the event, after the dome, any animals that were caught in here with us were soon served up as food. They were our only meat source.”
I recoiled. “Oh my God. You ate your pets?”
“I didn’t have any pets, so it’s not like I ate Fido,” Daniel said, irritation edging into his voice. “Doesn’t matter now anyway. That was decades ago. They consumed all the fresh meat within a year. But I agree, it’s horrifying. It’d be nice to have a pet.”
“Wait a minute. Go back a step. You said an alarm went off at Mum's house? I didn't see any alarms. And where's Mum now. Is she okay?”
“Mum's dead. Died in the event.”
My world stopped in that moment. Mum was dead. I’d known it was a possibility, but I’d also hoped she was still alive, that I'd get to see her again. My chest hurt. I had a vision of Mum as I remembered her, smiling at me from the kitchen as she made us dinner, asking about our day. I swear to God I could smell her. My eyes filled and a tear trickled down my cheek. I sucked in my bottom lip, fighting for control, when my chin started to wobble. Alrik squeezed my shoulder and I nearly came undone.
“We're going to have to catch up on the rest later,” Daniel said. “We need to move. I need to drop an air filter in here to wipe out your scent.”
“Where are we going?”
“Back to my place for now. I'll decide what happens after that.”
I could feel Alrik bristle behind me, knowing he disliked that this stranger had so much control over us. But I had to believe that my brother wouldn’t betray us. We had no choice but to trust him.
Daniel led us out to his car, a strange-looking SUV. Alrik and I sat together in the back while Daniel went back in and dropped the air filter, whatever that was. In a few minutes he was back, tossing our backpacks at us before sliding behind the wheel. Only there was no wheel, just a control panel. He pressed some buttons and the vehicle smoothly glided off. Wow. Hands-free driving.
Not liking the tense silence in the car, I asked the first question that popped into my head. “Where do you live?”
“Got an apartment in the city.”
“No house with a white picket fence, kids in the yard?”
“No. No wife. No kids.”
“Oh, Daniel.” Without thinking, I reached over and squeezed his shoulder. “I'm sorry. You always wanted a family of your own.”
“Could have had it, too, if it wasn't for the bloody event. I was engaged. Her name was Emily. She and mum were on a shopping trip to Adelaide when the event began. They never made it back.”
“I'm so sorry.”
“Why? It's not your fault. According to you, you weren't even on Earth.”
“Daniel. It's not like you to be so bitter.”
His eyes met mine in the rear-view mirror, and he shrugged my hand away. “You don't know me. You don't know me at all. If you really are Sierra, you've been gone for thirty years. You don't think things have changed since then? That I've changed?”
&n
bsp; He had a point.
Reluctantly, I drew my hand back into my lap. “Tell me about the event. What happened?”
“Yeah, that's the strange thing. Twenty-sixth of January two thousand and twenty five, every single country in the world launched its nuclear weapons at the same time. All aimed at each other, like some sort of crazy daisy chain. Obliterated half the fucking world. Radiation did a whole lot more damage. A few cities far enough away managed to avoid the worst of it, but the Earth's atmosphere was severely compromised. We couldn't breathe. We couldn't go outside because the sun burned us. Then the domes were built. As far as I know, there are about a dozen across the globe.”
“Twelve.” It was such a small number. “Only twelve domes? What about everyone else?”
“Everyone else is dead.”
“So no one knows who started the war, if you can even call it that. It sounds like each country launched one pre-emptive strike and that was it, they'd taken each other out.”
“That's pretty much what happened,” Daniel affirmed. “The word is it was some deep web hackers that set it all in motion. Probably kids not realising the implications of hacking into military databases and firing off nuclear warheads. We'll never know for sure.”
“Who built the domes?”
“I guess the military knew there was a high probability of something like this happening. The technology for the domes had already been developed. It was ready to deploy immediately.”
We fell silent as we approached the outskirts of the city. The streets were bustling now with other cars and pedestrians. Fashion had changed, but I didn’t see anything outrageous. It seemed living in a dome precluded any real fashion trends.
The closer we got to the city centre, the taller the buildings became, their sleek lines and rounded edges unlike anything I'd seen before.
“Architecture has come a long way.”
Daniel nodded, his eyes glued to the road. “Building materials had to change. Lots of things had to change. But yes, we found a way to construct strong buildings with cheap material that was easy to manipulate. A skyscraper can be built in a week. It’s quite amazing when you think about it.”
