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Kaylee glances around a moment before she answers Taylor, “I’ve often wondered how different the world was a hundred years ago,” Kaylee says. “Joey and I talked a lot about Old Earth before we came to Habitat 4-C and began this journey with all of you. I’m scared all the time, to be honest. Of the aliens. About why we are going on this journey. Of what we’ll find when we get there...”
Taylor studies Kaylee’s face, and her scared, wide eyes stare back at him. Taylor searches his mind to find something to say to the girl to reassure her that things will be alright.
~~~
BRIANNE GLANCES UP at the sky and attempts to shield her eyes from the chilly rain coming down over the growing field in an unrelenting torrent. She shivers then glances at the others, asking on other minds, “So, are we going to find a place to shelter from this shitty storm?”
“It will be over in five minutes, Bree...” Joey says. “I’m certain of it. You know the aliens do everything with perfect precision. It’s ridiculous that we cannot use that against them...”
“Yeah, I know but still... I’m cold, and wet down to the bone, and I absolutely hate this rain,” Brianne snaps. “You know I hate this rain... But then again, if you think about it, this escape plan is us doing something against them.”
“I know it,” Joey says, grinning maliciously for a moment, but then he looks at her with a serious stare before he adds, “and let’s look for somewhere to shelter overnight. Maybe a cave rather than an overhang like on the first night. It will be warmer... Addie, you seem to be good at spotting stuff. Maybe you can help me with it...”
~~~
THE SIX OF THEM CLAMBER up the boulder that Addie had found just a few minutes earlier, then they help one another to crawl in through the opening he had then spotted. They take over thirty minutes to get inside. Taylor glances up at the eastern sky regularly as the rain keeps coming down. Something is odd about it he cannot find any explanation for in the memories of his conversations with his mother. She had told him that the rain wouldn’t come from clouds but from floating ships that will hover several thousand kilometres above the ground, just outside the range of humans to see them.
“She had told me this rain downpour would only last for just ten minutes at most,” Taylor mumbles. “I’m uncertain why it’s still coming down with a vengeance...”
“I doubt I’ll sleep much in this goddamn rain...” Brianne hisses loudly. “Even inside this cave...”
“We have to sleep here, Bree. There’s no other choice than to stay here and wait out this damned rain,” Taylor whispers. “We’ll search for the bunker in the morning...”
Brianne smiles when she hears the words. Taylor feels a momentary urge to reach out to her and give a reassuring hug but decides against it, then realises that Addie can likely do a better job at it to get her to feel better. “Are you still thinking about the alien?” he asks after another minute of silence. She nods briefly.
“Soon we’ll be away from them forever...” Brianne whispers. “I’m certain of it.”
“I know that, Bree,” Taylor says. “But I’m also wondering if we’re going to be safe.”
Taylor knows he was making empty promises. They had no proof that things would be different. He glances outside at the rain, then he holds out a hand and lets it flow over his hand for a few moments. The liquid felt slightly warm to the touch. It makes him wonder how the liquid could allow anything to grow. Humans typically would avoid the rain. It wasn’t like the rain in the times of Old Earth. This liquid lets the plants in the growing fields grow...
“What are you thinking about now?” Brianne asks.
“I’m thinking about what we found in the Habitat,” Taylor says softly. “But even more so... why...”
“Because we need to hold on to who we are,” Brianne says. “We’re running to get somewhere to begin again. But what does this rain have to do with that?”
“Because rain is supposedly what allows this world to thrive,” Taylor says. “But this rain isn’t part of our world and...”
“We need to hold on to who we are,” Brianne says. “You told us that this rain comes from their ships. It’s a poison that makes this world less suited for us and makes this world more theirs... And something is going to happen soon. To us. To this world. I feel it in my bones...”
“I guess I need to remember that about you,” Taylor says.
“I’ll explain later, when we’re safe, why I feel in this way,” Brianne says.
“Okay,” Taylor says, smiling weakly, “and the rain seems to lessen right now, but we should wait until it’s completely gone. I don’t think it’s a good idea to get soaked in it...”
“Did you feel that?” Brianne asks suddenly. “I’m certain the ground shook just now...”
Taylor pulls back his hand abruptly, like the rain could scold his hand. He listens and then he waits to see if he too feels the ground shaking. But after a few minutes he shakes his head, and glances at Brianne with a sad face. He cannot sense what she can feel. It makes him more curious about her feelings of being able to sense things or feel things that haven’t happened yet. It’s the part of this journey that’s so unpredictable.
“I’ll explain when I feel safer,” Brianne whispers, looking down for a moment. “Not yet, but soon. Once we’ve found the... cave.”
Brianne glances up and flashed a smile at Taylor that makes him feel like she’s found him out with a secret. When he told them what else his mother had told him, she had grinned at him with a ‘told you so’ kind of smile, and it had made him feel uncomfortable. But as they glance at one another, the feelings disappear, and it almost seems that her presence becomes a safe place. The only other times he’d felt in this way was when he’d laid on the bed beside his mother, when she’d murmur an old song from Old Earth in his ear. Taylor glances at Addie and realises now why Brianne had taken a liking for him. She’d noticed something about him that required her to be caring towards his friend...
Taylor glances towards Kaylee, admitting now to himself she was offering a similar soothing presence.
“How much longer for the rain?” Sam asks, jerking Taylor from his pensive mood.
“You know, the old movies from Old Earth. When they’d stop and they play the music in a certain way that can give you shivers and make you feel like something is about to happen?” Taylor says, “like the movie they showed us the day before we left?”
Sam nods.
“If someone played some music right now, I wouldn’t feel out of place in the movie,” Taylor says. “And Bree seems to have a similar feeling if I’m right...”
Brianne giggles, then she hums loudly, and the music is the very music that Taylor had just referenced. Both boys jerk away from her because of her actions. After a minute she stops and explains, “Yep, I think I added some dramatic effect to our situation,” Brianne says. “So... if I go outside right now and stand in this rain, I’m going to melt... right, Taylor?”
“You know the elders never let us go outside when it rains,” Taylor grunts.
“I know,” Brianne says. “It’s something that’s always made me curious about everything. They—”
Brianne stares outside through the opening in the cave. “Don’t tell me you didn’t feel that one,” she shrieks. “It was closer now...”
“I felt something,” Sam admits. “Did you, Taylor?”
“We have to find that bunker tomorrow morning,” Brianne says, panic clear now in her voice. “If we don’t, it will be too late for us... They’re waiting for us there...”
“A few more minutes,” Brianne answers before Taylor can give any answers. “I’m certain we’ll be okay by tomorrow—”
~~~
A LOUD SCREECHING SOUND interrupts Brianne from speaking any further. Immediately all six of them are awake, and all stare at the exit of the cave, and each of their faces betrays them all, wondering what they had just heard.
“What was that?” Kaylee whispers. “Where did that sound come from? It sounded near...”
“Should we attempt to go now?” Addie asks. “Even with the rain...”
“Let’s wait for another ten minutes then I’ll check out how safe it is outside, okay,” Taylor says. “I’m the oldest here and I may be more okay in this rain...”
“Are you certain about doing that?” Kaylee squeals. “We don’t know what could be out there. If the elders are right... Remember what we saw at the bottom floors of your Habitat...”
“We need to know what that sound was,” Taylor says. “For all we know, they could have landed one of their spaceships on the ground. But the rumble means we’re now safe...”
Taylor crawls towards the exit before any of his friends can protest his decision. “The rain has ended,” Taylor calls out behind him. “It’s very silent out here... I think it’s safe for all of us to come outside. But before we do, we need to decide which way, we’ll go.”
“Let me look outside to check how it looks,” Addie says. Taylor crawls back inside the cave in reverse, then Addie crawls to the exit and before going places a hand on Brianne’s hand in a reassuring gesture. “He’s right. It looks safe out,” Addie calls out. “But maybe we wait until it dries.”
Addie moves back into the cave and slumps down against the wall beside the exit. “I couldn’t see anything out there that could have made the sound we heard,” Addie continues, glancing for a moment towards Brianne, who stares intently at the exit. She jumps visibly at Addie’s next question, “How did you know the sound was coming?”
“I can’t explain. I feel worried. That’s all,” Brianne answers as she glances at Kaylee, who looks like she wants to give a piece of her mind about their current predicament. “Maybe later I’ll explain, okay,” Brianne adds a moment later as she stares hard at Kaylee, almost willing her to stay silent with the stare. The boys in the group all notice the momentary animosity between the usually good-natured friends.
Taylor steps in with a decision. “The moment we’re in the bunker you both tell us what’s going,” he insists, “or at least, Bree should be able to decide for herself whether she wants told whatever is going on. I can tell something is up with them, but unlike the aliens, I will not force the issue or demand stuff. If we’re going to live somewhere safer, we need to make our own decisions. Each person for themselves. Nothing like how Old Earth did stuff where one person would demand from others to behave in a way that’s okay with them and nothing where someone’s feelings are being disregarded. If we’re going to do things differently, it begins with us...”
“I agree with Taylor,” Addie interjects. “He’s been like this for as long as I’ve known him. I might not be here now if he hadn’t given me the chance to choose.”
“So, a vote about going outside?” Joey asks. “Regardless of what the sound we just heard was...”
~~~
BY THE TIME SIX YOUNGSTERS had finally woken up, voted for what they were going to do, and then had clambered from their temporary dwelling their surroundings had fully dried. While they discussed the next part of their journey, they’re interrupted by a man’s voice ringing out through the landscape, “Come here, hurry!”
“Who’s that?” Addie asks.
“It’s definitely a human calling for us to come over to where he stands,” Kaylee says, “because I can smell the stink of his sweat...”
Taylor grins for a moment.
Kaylee’s sharp senses that had saved them several times during their trek in the last few weeks. And which was maybe doing it again.
“COME! Come now...!”