by Pam Uphoff
The girl in the front seat on the other side nodded. "They're just throwing us through the gate, they figure we've got enough stuff to make a go of it. I'm Milly. Amelia Prentice." She looked older, like a senior, or maybe even a college student. She must be seventeen, else she wouldn't be on the bus. Thick wavy brown hair, bright blue eyes in a tanned face. She waved at the three girls in the seats behind them; they all eyed him with disfavor. "Lillian Marshall, Ariel Wyss, Jamie Uchida. The five of us are theoretically in charge of the bus and the kids. Were those little kids your sisters?"
"Nope, never met them before." They were all pretty, like the popular girls that never wanted to have anything to do with him. Actually, the fat ugly girls hadn't either. Oh, well.
Lillian snorted. Bright green eyes, red hair. Her slightly tan skin was about as pale as the genetically engineered came, some combination of Political Correctness and the suntan craze of twenty years ago. Both extreme whiteness and extreme blackness had been left out of the genetic engineers' palate of skin colors. "We hoped Chris was short for Christine, and we females could run things sensibly. I suppose you think boys should be in charge?"
Only when the girls have stupid attitudes like yours. "Nope. I'm going to go off and live in the wild. You four can be as in charge as the rest of the kids let you be."
A giggle from further back. "Yeah! We are not swapping our parents for perpetual babysitters."
Jamie leaned out and glared. "Shut up Mallory. We're just worried about the little kids. You can get into all the trouble you want."
A bunch of them looked as old or older than he was. "Only five of us have driver's licenses?"
Mallory scowled. She was tiny and blonde, with no figure to speak of. Female gymnast type, made to order. "My parents didn't trust their little monster with a big dangerous car. There was a kid that was in a wreck, killed two other people . . . it sort of poisoned the whole state about us driving. They didn't take the older monsters' licenses away, but us young ones? Forget it."
"Well, if we do very much driving, over there, you'll all get to learn." Milly turned her attention back to the front as the driver put the bus in gear and pulled out.
In the empty stretches between towns, the driver pulled over and let them all take turns behind the wheel. They didn't get much turning practice, but they got a feel for the weight and responsiveness of the bus, as they sped up, slowed down, and changed lanes. Huge powerful engine, massive weight. Chris loved it. It felt so powerful. But not nimble.
They picked up a few more kids in Albany. Roslyn and Lance could drive, the rest were younger, or hadn't learned.
By the time they got to the Trans World Travel headquarters, they were all relaxed and comfortable with the handling. They slept on the bus, lined up with a wild miscellany of vehicles. Just ahead of them, a mooing mass of cows was crammed into a trailer made of steel bars, two horses stood stolidly in a separate section at the front. The man driving it cursed not being able to drive through immediately and fetched water and hay for the animals. The bus driver and the woman who'd been minding the little kids wouldn't let the kids out either.
Not that they needed out. They had two bathrooms, a fab machine and a kitchen in the back of the bus. The seats reclined till they were nearly flat, and swiveled to face either window or the seat across the aisle. Facing the aisle, the trays could be pushed up and shoved a bit to the side, so they all met in the middle. Chris temporarily swapped seats with Jamie so the four girls could play card games. Chris walked back and checked on Sea and Sky. They perked up to see an almost familiar face, and showed him the kitchen. It was pretty easy to learn the controls, and he produced cookies to share around with the other kids.
Lillian snorted as he distributed them. "Did you notice they're not programmed for alcohol? They gave us a 'child safe' kitchen! They're still controlling us."
"Never fear, someone is sure to start a still." Chris grinned. "I read how it worked once, I'll give it a try if we develop a desperate need to get drunk and rowdy."
There were four boys under ten, five boys and four girls between ten and fifteen, the other twenty-seven of them were older than that. Chris wondered if the older bias reflected the growing unpopularity of genetic engineering. Or the younger the kids, the more likely the parents emigrated too. Or both.
Mid-morning the government people walked the line, got everyone woken up and their vehicles started up. The driver and the nanny got off.
Milly sat behind the wheel, and inched forward with the line. According to their instructions, she tried to stay close to the trailer full of cattle in front of her, as the line lumbered forward and built up a bit of speed.
Lillian scooted up to Milly's seat. "Remember, hands off the wheel the moment we get to the wheel guides for the gate, get ready to start steering as soon as we pop through, and do not stop."
Milly nodded. "The cows will go left, I go straight ahead, the car behind veers a bit right, and everyone is happy . . . Oh. My. God!"
Chris gawped at the spinning hoop of light and leaping lightening arcs. "Keep driving. Straight ahead. There are the guides, take your hands off the wheel . . . " The bus dived into the electrical whirlwind. A subliminal impression of a roaring torrent of light . . . and out into sunshine. The bus dropped at least a foot, the under chassis hit the ground and scrapped. Then they bounced over lumpy bumpy grass. The cattle trailer ahead was wobbling badly. The driver wasn't about to try veering. "Edge to the left, I don't think that guy dares to turn at all." The bus jounced left, then she swerved hard as the trailer brakes lit. The bus swayed, and Milly turned the wheel back to steady it. Chris winced at a scrape and glanced back. Behind them, cars were appearing out of a glowing circle, but the circle was moving away from them, spreading the cars out further.
"Okay. You can stop now." Chris took a deep breath, and stepped up to open the doors.
And down onto a whole new world.
"God damn it, you hit me!" The driver of the cattle trailer climbed down from his big Dodge doolie and stomped back to look at his cattle. Nothing showed on the pipe construction. "Stupid kids can't drive, no wonder your parents dumped you."
Chris traced the long scrape down the side of the bus. "I thought the gate would be holding still, not moving like that. I guess that made it impossible for you to turn left, like you'd been instructed. You're lucky we didn't rear end you. In as much as we'd been instructed to drive straight and not stop until we were way far away from the gate."
"Listen you little shit . . ."
Chris felt like every horrible moment for the last year was about to shatter his skull. From some detached observation point he heard himself talking. "Going to call the cops? You're the one who'd get a ticket. Call a lawyer? Sue us? You'll have to start a government, form up some courts, elect a judge, and pass some laws. And there's forty-two of us and only one of you. You're out voted." Chris turned back to the bus. "Asshole."
"Why you little . . . " The man started toward him.
The screaming body fell out of nowhere. Hit the ground between them. A man, naked but for some greenish slime all over and blocky cage-like helmet over his head.
Lillian shrieked, and Chris was startled into motion. The man twisted on the ground, gasping for breath. He was big, muscular, looked like some weird Martian Warrior from a sci-fi story. All he needed was a big shiny sword and a loincloth.
Lillian screamed again, Chris turned in time see her knocked flat by another slimed and helmeted body. This one female. Screaming along with Lilia. Confused shouts drew Chris away from the first man. Two more men. They writhed on the ground, clutching the weird helmets and screaming.
Movement behind him.
A redheaded young woman trotted between vehicles, and crouched down beside the first man. His screams dropped off into panting gasps.
"What the heck? These are total immersion sensory helmets. With implants. I've never heard of such a thing on a person! Why on Earth would anyone . . . oh. Are these the gods? The
animals that were used for test runs of all the genetic engineering? I'd heard people call them kids, but I didn't realize they looked so . . . human."
Chris gulped. "They are humans. And they aren't kids anymore." In fact, this one was huge. He touched the helmet. "Is this how they controlled the gates? They said a few absolutely crucial monsters would be staying behind. I guess they decided these four weren't needed."
"Four?" The doctor or nurse or whatever she was, raised her head and spotted the naked woman on the ground. She'd curled up and gone quiet. The redhead checked her quickly, raising an eyelid with her thumb. "They've both had some sort of brain trauma. Not quite like a stroke, it's symmetrical. Minor. I hope."
Chris tried to concentrate on the woman's bald head, not the green slimed nakedness.
The doctor climbed to her feet and trotted over to the next man. He looked older, dark skinned, African features, bald under the cage that held his head. Chris looked back at the first man. Also bald. Or his head shaved. A deep tan, his face wasn't covered with goo. His eyes, as they blinked, were dark, nearly black, just a warm rim of brown around the outside, and enough flecks to tell where the pupil was.
He got his elbows under himself and sat up.
Jamie hustled over, and talked to him. He looked around a bit, and spoke. "It looks like a nice place. And it smells free." He sank back down and his eyes closed.
There were thin wires, hundreds of them, it looked like, running from helmet to scalp. Chris's stomach twisted. "Do they have things stuck all the way into their brains?"
The redhead was back. "Yes, or at least, laid out on top of the brain, in contact with it. They do that to monkeys, to rats. Not people! Can you kids keep an eye on them? I'll get my hospital set up as quickly as possible."
Chris let out a relieved breath at that. A hospital. A doctor.
"Sure. Can we move them into the shade?" Mallory glanced at the man, then looked away, blushing.
"Certainly. Try to not wiggle the helmet, and don't let them pull on any of the wires." The doctor hustled away.
The cattleman snorted, climbed back into this doolie and started it. Chris grabbed the naked man's shoulders and hauled him a bit further away from the trailer. It wasn't easy, with the goo. And he was heavy. Muscular as well as tall.
Ariel came out with blankets, but hesitated. "Will that slime wash out? We don't have many extra blankets."
Chris shrugged. "Use mine. I packed a sleeping bag."
They shifted the other unconscious people over closer.
Chris and three other boys heaved the last man onto the blanket, and they carried him into the shade of the bus.
One Black, three White. One woman, three men. Political correctness falling from the sky. He shivered, the spurt of humor fading. All treated like experimental animals. Where are they from? What's going on?
Other people started shifting their vehicles, and Chris heard people talking about staking claim to land. Most of them were heading off to the right or straight ahead along the rough line of vehicles. West? North? Chris walked around to the back of the bus and climbed up the ladder. The top wasn't flattened, he had no idea why it had a ladder. But it gave him a wider view. They were in the middle of a rolling grassland, with a few trees here and there. On the horizon to the right of the bus he caught the gleam of light on water, the blue of deep water. A line of darker vegetation probably marked the shoreline, or a forest along the shore.
It looks like a nice place. And it smells free. Chris wasn't sure what free smelled like, but like the man below, he was free now. All I have to do is decide what to do with all this freedom.
"Is that the ocean? Or a really big lake?" Jamie had climbed up behind him. "If it's fresh water we should claim land on the shore, don't you think?" She was another of the blue eyed blondes, but tall and, umm, with a well developed figure.
"Maybe. We'll look at the ground and see if we can tell if it floods." Chris turned and took a slow survey. "There's a stream that way, see the line of trees? The other way looks pretty dry. And rocky, maybe sandy. "
"Yeah, all the people who landed over there are driving this way, and over toward the lake." Jamie looked down. "Here comes the doctor. I wonder if she needs an apprentice?" The girl scrambled down the ladder. Chris followed, and was promptly drafted to help set up an Army surplus mobile hospital in a big canvas tent. And transport the four people with their weird helmets. He fled before the doctor started doing anything.
From the top of the bus he looked around again. He looked down, to judge how the shadow of the bus was changing. Should have kept a compass in my pocket. He decided the lake was north, the dryer lands east and the stream, west. To the south, the rolling grassy hills added trees as they rolled out of sight. Lots of room, no need to rush to claim land until we find out what the climate, and especially the drinkable water situation is. No more people were coming from the east, and just a few dozen vehicles were in sight, spread out. People wandered about.
Like lost puppies, wondering what to do.
What do we do?
After a couple of hours, Jamie came out, looking excited. "The doctor said I was very steady, and that she'd help me study to at least be her assistant, and maybe a doctor myself, depending on how we eventually accredited things like that. She said they'd probably have a college, and a medical school eventually."
Chris nodded. "Umm, those people?"
"The doctor said they'd probably be all right. She said the implants were organic, and would dissolve, so she just clipped them off below the skin. She said there's no ongoing trauma that she can see, without CAT scans and so forth. They're starting to wake up." She flapped a hand in farewell, and trotted back into the hospital.
Chapter Two
9 June 2117
Anyone's' Guess
He was in a tent.
Harry frowned, wondering how that had happened.
"Awake finally, are you?"
"Gisele!" Harry frowned. Beyond that instant recognition, very little stirred.
"Do you know your name?" She stooped over him, petit and shapely.
"Harry, and you are Gisele, aren't you?"
"Am I? I haven't been too certain." A big bandana covered her head, all her hair concealed. He couldn't remember what color it was. Her facial bones were excellent, the bright blue eyes, superb.
Another woman bustled up, a young one with green eyes and red hair in a pony tail. "Now, here's another one of you awake. Thank goodness. Really, we hadn't thought you gods were going to be coming with us. Did they exile you, too?"
"I, I suppose so." Gods? Harry looked around. "Where are we?"
"We're calling it Exile, because, well that's why we're here. They called it Extension, from some geologic thing they spotted with a satellite. I heard the lake to the north is fresh water, so maybe it's one of the Great Lakes, except we don't know if the geography is the same or not."
"Oh?" Harry lay back shakily. What is a great lake, other than big? And who are "they?"
"Only three more of you still unconscious." The redhead burbled on. Was it nerves or did she just talk constantly? "Goodness, we were hoping we wouldn't need to set up the hospital so quickly." She looked around. "Army surplus M.A.S.H. unit, you see?"
It didn't look mashed. Harry turned his head and saw more cots beyond his.
“I don’t know why they didn’t remove the implants and helmets before they sent you, but someone said they thought you had to have them to control the gate even as you went through.” She flashed a light in his eyes and nodded, apparently satisfied with whatever she saw there.. “That sounds an awful lot like they were shutting down the gate, but maybe they can do it with regular people now, or computers, so they got rid of every last one of us.”
Harry couldn’t keep up with the rush of words. He blinked, lost.
"Do you know these men? Do you know their names? This one keeps fading in and out of consciousness. The other fellow hasn’t so much as twitched yet. I don’t know what thos
e implants did to you."
She helped Harry up, and steadied him as he staggered over to the next cot.
"I, I. He's always in trouble. I don't . . . I don't know his name. He looks drowned. Puffy and nasty. Was he bald? I don't remember bald." He looked over at the other man. "Romeo, but that was a joke. He looks funny bald. All his girlfriends are going to complain. Rom Eww? Oww?"
"That's it!" Gisele said from behind him. "Romeau. It has been on the tip of my tongue all day."
"All day? How long have I been here?"
"We all arrived yesterday about noon, and it's nearly sunset today. The days are a few minutes longer, our watches are practically useless."
He remembered watches. Yes. He looked at his wrist. "Good grief!"
"Yes, they depilated all of you for the immersion tanks. If you’d been in longer, your skin would have adjusted." The redhead looked at the unconscious men in pity. "At least they aren't screaming any more. I think something interfered badly with the contact circuits in your brains. Maybe passing through the gate. At least they were organic conductors, they'll dissolve gradually over the next year or so. I cut the connectors off at the outer skull surface."
Harry looked at the man on the bed. Tiny dots of scabs were scattered across forehead and scalp. Harry refrained from feeling his own head. What he could see of himself looked like he'd been immersed in water for days, his dark skin was splotchy and peeling in damp thin sheets. He didn’t look quite as chapped and drowned as the other two. He touched a loose flap and pulled carefully.
"Don't do that. It'll make sores."
"Yes, Ma'am." He snuck a sideways peek at Gisele. Yes, under makeup she had the same skin . . . mess. The bandana was explained, then. He felt his own smooth scalp, and hoped to hell it wasn't permanent. Yep, little bumps from . . . contact circuits on his brain? His stomach roiled and he shivered. Brain damage. That’s why I’m not remembering right. He looked out at the bright sunshine at the end of the row of beds and thought about running away, as far he could travel, and wondered what he would find.
