Post date: Dec 5, 2016 2:56:59 PM
Part 2: The Dueanian Cycle
#1
A New Beginning for Mankind
Fisher Butterfield had never been this far outside of any Reproduction of Family Ministry facility. Her frequent travels aboard Sperm Gathers convoys, to perform the mandatory procreation ritual, had always taken her within a scant few hundred miles of Facility No. 4 where she had lived since birth.
Sure Fisher had seen some of the country. She wasn’t a total shut-in. But the distance in which she and her best friend Baylee Wright had travelled was definitely beyond the unrestricted zones specified in the Reproduction of Family Ministry protocol guidelines for authorized travel.
How far had they travelled? And why had Baylee’s alien friend, Dewey, brought them here?
Fisher took a deep breath. She tried to calm the nervous, gnarling sensation that was rapidly spreading through her stomach.
She was never one to overly concern herself with rules and protocols but something about how she had eagerly followed Baylee on her crazy scheme to save the human race from extinction worried her.
There was bound to be repercussions. Big time.
“It never grows old.”
Baylee’s voice, unencumbered by her helmet, was soft.
Fisher shifted her weight on the large withered piece of a fallen tree, that she’d been perched on for the last half hour, giving Baylee some space to sit down beside her.
She dug the toes of her boots into the hard-packed sand, making tunnelled grooves in the dampened soil.
Her eyes scanned the deserted beach and what looked like a mountain of trash that stretched for as far as the eye could see.
“What doesn’t?” Fisher huffed. “Looking at a pile of garbage?”
“No.” Baylee chuckled. “Breathing in fresh air.”
Alright, Fisher had to agree. The air here, in the great outdoors, was definitely different from the recycled, climate-controlled, chemically-enhanced facility air they’d been breathing their entire lives or the choking smog engulfing the nearby territory where The Forlorn Ones lived.
“Where are we, Bay?” she asked. She eyed the test tube her friend was fidgeting with as Baylee sat down on the end of the log. “And what is that?”
Baylee held up the test tube. It had a tiny stopper and was filled with a semi-clear liquid.
“To bad the smog is still too dense out here. I would have liked to have seen the sun rise.”
Fisher recognized Baylee’s tendency to stall.
“Is that even feasible?” she inquired. “To see the sun.”
Baylee sighed and wet her lips. “I’m working on it, Fishy.”
Fisher let a moment of silence stretch into two full minutes. Then she inquired, again. “Where exactly are we?”
Baylee gave a hearty laugh. “In the middle of nowhere, the centre of the universe.”
Fisher rolled her eyes. “Specifics, Bay, not some mumbo jumbo crap.”
“I am being specific. It doesn’t matter where exactly we are. Just that we are here.”
Fisher sighed and shook her head. “Alright, what is this place? Why have we stopped here? And why don’t we need to wear our helmets? The air, although not the greatest, is fresher than outside the Facility.”
“The truth is I don’t know where we are.”
Fisher scoffed. “Well that really helps, doesn’t it?”
Baylee grinned. “Dewey’s never brought me this far north. But considering that the air contains less smog, the beach has been cleared, and the sand actually has some moisture content, I’d say Dewey has been quite busy.”
“Are we still in Florida?”
Baylee shrugged. “We didn’t burn up all our fuel from the reserve holding tank, so I imagine so. I can’t tell you which side we’re on, or if we’re near any other Reproduction Facility.”
Fisher took a nervous breath. The gnarling in her stomach increased.
Geography hadn’t been her best subject in school. In fact geography wasn’t much part of her education at all, since there was really no need for it. Much of the world was uninhabitable, but she did know the basics.
The Reproduction Facility where her mother and she lived was in what American used to call the state of Florida. That the country of Canada, although now virtually deserted, lay far to the north, while South American, where millions of people had fled before the oceans clogged with debris, was to the south.
“Bay, did you happen to bring any weapons with us?”
Baylee shot Fisher a concerned look. She then glanced around the still deserted beach.
“Yeah, why do you ask?”
“You don’t know where we are. You can’t tell me if we’re near any civilization. Aren’t you afraid of the bands of raiders? You yourself said last night that we shouldn’t stop for more than a few minutes. Shouldn’t we have our weapons close by? It’s daylight now.”
“Dewey wouldn’t put us in danger.”
“So you say.”
Baylee’s eyebrows went up.
“Are you seriously questioning me or are you pointing out the obvious dangers of being outside of the Facility?”
Fisher swallowed. “Both. We’re out in the middle of nowhere, unprotected, and I don’t know enough about this ‘Dewey’ character to know whether I can trust him…it…whatever he or it is. Come on, Bay. All I’ve seen so far is that ‘Dewey’ is an orange, gooey, wet mass. You tell me whether my rational mind should be concerned or not.”
“You’re right.” Baylee nodded. “I have been secretive lately. I’ve been so worried about someone finding out about what I’ve been doing and forcing me to stop, that I’ve neglected to share with you all that has been happening. But I can assure you, Fishy, Dewey is my friend and would never do anything that would put us in danger. Dewey is here to help mankind, not destroy it.”
Fisher pressed her lips together and frowned.
“Then I take it that test tube has something in it that Dewey needs.”
Baylee nodded again.
“Okay.” Fisher sighed. “I trust you, so if you say things are good, then I’ll believe you. You just have to promise me, Bay, that you’re going to be straight with me from now on. If I’m going to help you I need to know everything. And for starters, where is Dewey?”
Baylee shrugged casually. “He went to locate Lark.”
“Lark?”
“Dewey’s translator.”
There was noise in the near distance. Baylee turned and then stood.
“Here they are.” She said and began walking up the beach. “Come meet Lark, Fishy.” She said over her shoulder. “You’ll like him.”
©Human in Inhuman Worlds by Janet Merritt