by Darrell Bain
It was not so much of an announcement as an admission by city officials that the eviction of altered humans was progressing on a “voluntary” basis but that some “unrest” was being caused by “instigators and criminals". The spin was so blatant that Jake had to read between the lines to get the gist of it. What it meant to him and his companions was that the sooner they left Dallas behind, the better off they would be.
The traffic wasn't much worse than the previous day, but before long he noticed that more of it was outbound than before, and when he turned off on the exit that led to the spaceport, it became apparent that many vehicles were heading in the same direction, joined by others who must have come up from further south, from just inside where the barricades were going up. Before long he began to see several columns of smoke rising from the direction of the spaceport. An ominous sense of depression began settling over him because he thought he knew what was happening.
When it was announced that the spaceport was going to close with this last flight, desperate people, altered and normal alike had begun converging on the immigration office. As more and more of them were denied a chance to leave, without even an interview, the situation began to turn ugly. Now the day before the last flight, the scavengers and looters had begun getting ready to steal whatever was left behind. As they edged closer to the fences and gates in hopes of getting in front of their fellows, the guards saw what was happening and either deserted their posts or joined the mob. Before long it was flowing toward the administrative and support offices like a dirty tide.
Jake couldn't blame them too much but it was playing hell with his plans to drop Maria and Gary off for their flight.
Lea drove carefully, trying to avoid swarms of pedestrians hurrying along the shoulders of the access road to join the others. Soon it became impossible. She saw a side street ahead that was marginally clearer than the one they were on and put on her turn signal. “Jake, we've got to find an alternate route. We'll never make it going this way."
“I know,” he answered grimly, fondling the lasergun in his lap, already drawn and ready to use.
“Don't risk yourselves,” Gary said from the seats behind the driver's console. He could see what was happening as clearly as Jake and Lea and liked it even less.
Lea got onto the side road by narrowly avoiding a cluster of armed men, along with a few women, who were crossing the intersection against the warning holographs. She drove on down the road, then saw that it was going nowhere that would help them. “Sorry folks, bad move. I'm going to turn around soon as I find a place where I can."
A few moments later she found a half empty parking lot and got the big rig reoriented. Just as she was ready to drive back the way they had come, a brilliant flash of light lit the horizon. She stopped and waited. Jake, an infantry veteran of a war from twenty years back, began counting, intending to use the flash/bang method of calculating how far off the explosion had occurred. He stopped bothering a few seconds later as the last shuttle to leave the Dallas Spaceport lifted off, trailing a brilliant plume of exhaust. All four watched in silence as the shuttle rose higher and higher, only a tiny silver glint atop the fire from the rockets. The sound came after more seconds had passed, a deep continuous thunder that went on and on and gradually faded as the spaceship vanished into the clouds.
Gary held Maria very tightly as he watched their dream rise from earth, their last chance for a normal life. He felt as if it were taking a vital portion of himself with it. He felt the wetness of tears on his face, not for himself but for Maria, who had never expected a real chance in life until he came along. How must she be feeling to see her first real vision of stability and acceptance into society go up in a contrail of fire and smoke?
“I guess they had to leave now to avoid the mobs. I'm sorry kids. Goddamn, I'm sorry,” Jake said.
“It's not your fault, Jake. In fact, any chance we had to begin with was all your doing."
Lea was looking in the other direction from her vantage point in the driver's seat. She could see that the overpass they had descended from was even thicker with traffic than before, both vehicles and people on foot, families and outlaw gangs intermixed without rhyme or reason. They looked small from the distance but were no less of a threat. A sudden rattle of gunfire and an explosion unlike the noise from the spacecraft's liftoff got everyone's attention.
“I hate to pour oil on the fire folks, but we need to get out of here,” Lea said. This area is going to be pure bedlam real quick.” She touched the controls and the big rig began moving forward again.
“Where are we going?” Maria asked, the first thing she had said since seeing their ride into space take off a day early—without them aboard. Her voice was subdued, like that of a man struggling to feed his family who had suddenly been fired from his job.
“Where? Why kitten, we're going to keep on just like Lea and I planned. To the interstate and then east, at least to the Mississippi. I don't think we'll try going beyond there. The northeast corridor is on its way out, I think. And the Southeast is too wooded and brush filled. A perfect environment for the feral enhanced animals."
“I guess you can let us out soon as you get clear of the city,” Gary said resignedly. I've got enough money left for a clunker at least. Maria and I will try to find a place to live outside the cities."
“Sure you will, but damned if you're going to do it by yourselves. You ain't going anywhere but with us, old buddy."
“Jake—"
“Shut up. Do you think we'd put you out with the mess that's brewing now? Hell's bells, if for no other reason, you need to stay and help protect us from hijackers. The two of us can't keep watch all the time, and if it comes to a fracas, four armed persons have a hell of a lot better chance than two."
Maria was still holding tightly to Gary, her thoughts in tatters such as she had not experienced since being rescued by the enhanced leopard in Mexico. Why was Gary asking to be put out? She thought rapidly back over events and suddenly realized that it was simply a part of his basic decency, not wanting to take advantage of his friends even at risk of their lives.
She was saved from further delving into the past by Lea. “We're not going to separate, hear? If I had ever had kids, I would have wanted them to turn out just like you two. Now you all just hush and let me drive.” She twisted the steering knob as savagely as if it weren't powered.
“Thank you,” Gary said quietly. Again, he realized that there were still decent and caring people in the world, no matter that civilization was disintegrating into fragmented parts and that he had no idea how it would end. He and Maria would just have to try to deserve their help and return it whenever and however they could.
“We'll make it,” Jake said. “Somewhere there's got to be a place where us and our furry people will be accepted for what we are. All we have to do is look for it."
As the big rig headed back the way they had come, Lea managed to steer it to the other side of the divided road without being stopped and get it headed away from the space port. That direction had less traffic and fewer straggly, ill dressed people. She thought that most of the ones they saw now were probably former employees trying to escape the violence taking place behind them.
Just like we are, Gary thought. On the horizon a wan moon was rising, pale in the morning light and almost full. He stared at it a few minutes, thinking of what might have been, then put it out of his mind. The present was more important. And the best dream of his young life was sitting right beside him.
“We'll make it, sweetheart,” he told her. “We're young and we have the best friends in the world to help."
“Good friends,” Booger Bear agreed, looking up into Maria's face.
Slowly, a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. She nodded. “Yes, Booger. Good friends.” She inched closer to the comfort of Gary's body. “Now that I think about it, going to the moon wouldn't have been worth losing them."
Gary bent to kiss the top of her head. “Of course not,” he s
aid. “What were we thinking of?"
In front of them, Jake and Lea nodded their heads in concert.
Nothing could replace true friends.
THE END
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