The sun sizzled red in the sky as the front gate to the compound hissed open. Matthew squinted into the glare and checked his wrist meter. The temperature read 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Even with his radiation suit on he could feel sweat trickling down his neck, his skin beginning to burn under the solar radiation. Matthew gave a glance at the two others who were with him, his best friends Silas and Adam. Then, armored against the sun, they stepped out onto the cracked ground and began trudging toward the freeway.
Decades before, thousands of cars had streamed in and out of the city on this road, but now it was completely empty. The three boys gazed up at the fading billboards as they walked, signs advertising businesses that once catered to travelers: gas stations, restaurants, hotels. In the far distance, the towering skyscrapers of the city loomed on the horizon, the tips of the buildings wreathed in smog. Every few minutes, a transport train slid by on a track between the two lanes of the abandoned highway, windows tinted black against the sun.
Soon, panting, their skin burning, the boys found a station where they could catch the next train into the city.
At the station, a homeless man without a radiation suit was slumped over a bench.
“Give me your suit,” he grunted, putting his hand on Silas’s arm.
“No,” Silas said, pulling away. “Get your own.”
“Come on,” said the man. “Just for a few minutes. I’ll give it right back.”
Sweat poured from the man’s body and soaked through his yellowed shirt. His uncovered skin was beet-red and knotted through with black dabs of cancer. Matthew looked away, his stomach lurching with the sudden fear that the man would drop dead before their eyes.
At that moment, a transport train came sliding down the track toward them. It drew to a stop and the doors hissed open.
Silas stepped on first, then Matthew.
“Two for the Core,” Silas said, then jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “I’m getting his fare.”
“No,” Matthew said. “Let me pay for myself.”
Silas shook his head. “No way. You’re not paying for anything tonight.”
Matthew opened his mouth again to object, but Silas had already stripped back the sleeve of his radiation suit and passed his bare forearm below the scanner. His ident photo blinked on the screen, along with his account balance, showing a debt of more than 7,000 units. Matthew quickly glanced away and walked down the aisle, pretending not to have seen.
Silas took a seat next to Matthew as Adam paid his own fare. When it was the homeless man’s turn, he held out his arm and the screen blinked red: a negative balance of nearly 100,000 units.
The driver shook his head.
“No,” he said. “Too much debt. You can’t ride.”
The homeless man pleaded, his voice rising. “Please. Please, I can’t go back out there. You don’t understand. You have a suit. I have nothing!”
The driver stood and put one gloved hand on the homeless man’s arm, tried to guide him off the transport.
“No, don’t! I can find the money.” His eyes darted around the compartment, his face pleading. “One of these boys can pay for me!”
Silas and Adam looked into their laps, but Matthew didn’t look away.
The driver pushed at the homeless man harder, finally shoving him through the open doors. The homeless man’s heel caught on a crumbled piece of concrete, and he stumbled backward onto the platform.
The transport jerked forward, and Matthew turned his eyes to the front of the transport, did his best to put it out of his mind. Tried not to think about whether the homeless man would still be there when they got back, in the exact same spot: dead, his skin baking to a cracked brown in the merciless sun.
At that moment, Matthew couldn’t wait to ship off to space. To leave Earth behind. To get as far away as possible from this godforsaken, dying planet.