World-Mart (13 page)

He shifted his glance between the two of them, dumbfounded by their response.  He sniffled, going quiet himself, waiting to see what either would do next.

“May I see?” George finally asked her, his voice light and inqui
sitive
.

Slowly, her hand shaking, she handed one of the pieces of thick, pulpy paper.

George carefully read the poem:

Sickly blue,

    pale windows to an empty shell,

   Pestilent and putrid;

    when will your luster die?

Twisted membrane,

    a matter of grey gone black,

    Rotten and deformed;

    when will your last spark fire?

Fraudulent body,

    true colors feigned with closed eyes,

    Foul and tainted;

    when will you go still?

George nodded.  “I like it.”

“You do?” Shelley asked,
surprised
.

“Why don’t you come out and write by the heater, so we can turn out the click-light?”

She nodded, and the three returned together to the warm kitchen.

Chapter Thirteen

THE LINE
270 Shuttle inched itself toward the garage, finally
approach
ing its destination after nearly a two-hour power delay.  Had it not been thirty degrees out, raining and hailing in heavy waves, Virginia would have tried her luck finishing her way across the district on foot.  She had enough tunnel and outdoor travel ahead of her with just the shuttle transfers as it stood, however, and as uncomfortably crowded as the shuttle was, at least there was enough body heat inside to keep one from freezing to death.

The Line 50 Shuttle seemed to move faster.  It also moved more deviants than humans, which filled Virginia with a strange mix of discomfort and ease.  She could look around the shuttle without calling attention to herself, but at the same time, being surrounded by so many deviants at once elicited a programmed response from within her that she couldn’t
just
rationalize away.  She could feel heavy beads of sweat begin to trickle down her forehead and over the core of her body, and she started to shiver.

A young deviant woman, also dressed in a sanitation associate’s uniform, turned to Virginia.  “Are you okay?” she asked, sincere concern in her crystalline blue eyes.

Virginia nodded, although it was clear that she was beginning to panic.  She felt herself go dizzy, and she closed her eyes for a moment in attempt to regain her composure.

“Try to slow down your breathing,” the woman said, her voice calming.

Virginia nodded, although she struggled to catch her breath.  She felt like she was suffocating no matter how hard she worked to control her heavy lungs.

The shuttle came to a stop in a smaller garage, and Virginia forced herself to her feet.  Still feeling uneasy and dizzy with overwhelm, she exited the shuttle and looked for the Line 70 Shuttle track.

The young woman came up beside Virginia, setting down her heavy backpack.  “Are you lost?”

Virginia showed her Anne’s directions.  “I’ve never been on this side of town before.”

“I gathered,” she said.  She helped Virginia to the correct bench, shouldering her backpack, and then sat down with her.  “I’m Mary.”

“Virginia.”

They shook hands.

“I know where you’re going.  I can take you there,” Mary said.

Virginia smiled gratefully, although she could not wipe the desperation that still filled her thoughts.  “That’s very kind of you.”

“I just happen to be on my way there, myself,” Mary said.  She patted her backpack.  “I have a present from Power-Corp.”

The Line 70 Shuttle came in from the left, its brakes squealing as it slowed to a halt in front of them.  The doors opened, and Virginia, Mary, and three other deviants were the only people to board.  Strangely, the shuttle had no security associate.

“Who’s your friend?” the only man on board asked Mary.  He was young, had dark, shaggy hair, and wore paint-spattered overalls.  His hands were covered with scars, and he carried a large bag.  It looked heavy.

“This is Virginia,” Mary began.  “She’s new to this area.  Anne gave her directions from the hospital.”

The young man nodded.  He smiled and extended his hand to Virginia.  “I’m Isaac.”

Virginia shook his hand, surprised by his grip.  “So you both know Anne?” she asked.

“We’re all colleagues,” Mary said.

“Colleagues?”

“Who
is
this woman?” Isaac asked, looking suspicious.

“A casualty of war,” Mary replied, an answer that seemed to satisfy all but Virginia.

Virginia looked around the shuttle car, suddenly realizing that she
wa
s the only one there who
wa
s not in on the secret.  “What war?”

“Ray will explain everything,” Mary assured her.

No one said another word as the shuttle slowed, coming to a stop at a small, private hub rather than in a garage.  The rain and hail both continued to come down relentlessly, and the p
assengers
braced themselves as the door opened.

“This is our stop,” Mary said.

All five deviants stepped out, immediately getting soaked by the cold rain.  They shielded their heads and faces from the hail, and all of them began to run down a muddy path carved through a tall, thick field of wild grass.

Virginia had no idea what she was doing or where specifically she was going, but she ran along with the group, cold and shivering in the rain.  Hailstones the size of marbles pummeled the group, and the wind was painfully cold.  Visibility was low.  The group moved through the trail as quickly as they could.  Virginia felt a strange sense of excitement take over her.  She felt herself delving far beyond her comfort zone, but at the same time, she was on an adventure to somewhere unknown.  She knew she had to let go of everything that had made up her life as Virginia Irwin or she would go insane.  She told herself that she needed to embrace whatever the future had for her.  Corporate may have taken away her identity, but she was still alive.

Virginia felt her wedding band, wondering what place it had in her new life.  The thought of discarding it was enough to return the lump to her throat, and so she moved it to her right hand instead.  It felt funny there, foreign.  It would take some getting used to, just as it had so many years ago when George first placed it on her finger and she swore her eternal vows.  She wondered if George had moved his band, yet, being just as much the false widower as she was the false widow.

She hoped he would not grieve too long for her.

The group came up to a parked shuttle at the end of a private line.  It sat silent and dark.

“Thank goodness we don’t have to wait today!” Mary said
,
pulling open the shuttle associate’s door.  She got in, and after only a moment the interior of the shuttle lit up and the main door slid open.  Virginia followed the rest of the group into the shuttle, glad that she had more than just Anne’s vague directions to get her to her destination.  Anne had to have counted on her to stand out by the time she boarded the 70, she figured, because it is unlikely she would have found the place by herself.

The shuttle slowly began to move, picking up speed as it rolled down the track.  Isaac and the other two deviants watched Virginia with an unsettling mix of suspicion and curiosity.  With Mary in the operator’s room, Virginia felt alone and vulnerable, and she smiled sheepishly as she glanced between the three sets of staring eyes.

Despite the cold and the continuing rain, Virginia was glad when the shuttle stopped at another private
stop
and the door opened.  She hurried out before everyone else, looking for Mary.

Mary powered-down the machine and closed the shuttle associate’s door.  Virginia and the others followed in silence as they trekked through a grove of wild trees.  Broken branches were everywhere, the result of nature’s wrath against the hapless, unoffending trees, and a direct path was not clear.  Mary obviously led by memory, directing the group through the weatherworn domain, and to a clearing marked by two large boulders.

The group continued on, coming to the foothill lining a small cluster of mountains.  Mary found the mouth of a hidden cave behind a thick gathering of bushes.  The rocky entrance was cold and dark, and Virginia made sure she stayed close behind Mary.  Virginia felt uneasy in the darkness, unable to see how sturdy the rocky ceiling really was.  She
imagined
the earth above them collaps
ing
in on the tunnel at any
given
moment, trapping all of them in eternal darkness
, and she hastened her pace.
  As soon as they wound past the first bend they could see light, and by the time they found the main cavern, they could feel warmth emanating from an electric heater.  Virginia hurried out of the shadows, shivering as she moved into the warm, lamp-lit cavern.

The large, rocky area appeared to be a study and stock room, with shelves of electronics and laboratory supplies on one side and several large and expensive pieces of equipment on the other.

Ray King sat in an ergonomically correct chair in front of a monstrous desk, reading a file on his computer, a personal bodyguard standing on either side of him.  He appeared to be in his late thirties or early forties, but Virginia couldn’t tell for sure.  He didn’t have any gray hair, save a few rogue strands in his beard, but his face had a defined character that developed only with age.  He looked up as the group dropped their loot, noticing Virginia as the outsider that she was.

Virginia nervously went up to Ray, and the bodyguards moved in front of her path, blocking her with their combined mass.

“Anne sent her,” Mary said, pulling coils of copper wiring from her bag, entering them on a catalogue sheet, and then finding their place on the supply shelves.

“I don’t have anywhere else to go,” Virginia said, surprised to see so much technology.  “Medical-Corp told my family that I was dead.”

Ray turned to the others in the cavern, save his two guards.  “I need all of you in the work room.”  He handed the lunch box to Isaac.  “We have few new tests I need you to prepare
to run
.”  He shouted after the others, “and the builders need help wiring the new turbine.”