Unnaturals (14 page)

Metal screeched and groaned as the door slowly slid inside the wall.

There were bare stone stairs on the other side, leading up. No computer, no advertisements, no greetings, almost no light. There wasn't even an elevator, only the distant sounds of the train speeding away to Annabella.

"This is not the place," Mom said. "This is not the last station."

"What is it, Mom? Do you know?"

Mom shrugged.

"It is, then, a chance for us. Let's go."

Mel took some of the bandages her wheeled medstat carried and used them to tie the machine to her back, so that she could carry it.

The door groaned and screeched back to its place the moment they stepped through the threshold. There was no interface whatsoever on this side.

Meliora cast a last glance at the towering, now silent metal, then took her mother's hand and led her up the stairs.

Part II: City of Life

Nature

It was softlights period out there, but the lights in the sky weren't soft. A huge, bright moon glowed in a sky otherwise as black as polished shoes, and the stars were thousands.

There were no other lights. None at all. The ground was even darker than the semi-darkness of the train. The trees—many of them, so
many
of them—were black outlines against the strange black sky.

Something touched Mel's face and she jumped. She'd seen nothing. Mom had been hugging herself, trembling, but now she reached out and put her arm around Mel's shoulders.

"This is wind, Mel," Mom said, "though I didn't get any broadcast that wind was scheduled. It's an unnatural wind, too."

It was almost as gentle as normal Lucastan wind but not as rhythmic. It came, it went, it tugged, then again, without warning. It frightened Mel more than the darkness did.

"Let's go, Mom." She put her arm around Mom's waist and they walked forward. The medstat, now on the ground, rolled beside them.

There was a scream in the sky. A moment later, a shadow blacker than the trees passed above them, screaming again. Mel shivered.

More shadows in the sky, and shadows on the branches of trees.

"Those are birds, Mel. How interesting."

A few steps later, the pavement ended.

"What now, Mel? Do we go back now?" Mom's eyes were jumping in many directions again, but it was of no use. Everywhere you looked, the darkness was the same.

"No, Mom, we walk on," Mel said.

They walked. Or, Mel and Mom did, while the medstat rolled on its wheels, shaking and stumbling even more than Mom did. If Meliora hadn't held its hand, it would have fallen. She ordered it to stop its attempts to treat their fatigue. This was of no use with the machine so unstable. Everything was dark. Mel wasn't sure she could find the stairway again if she tried—but what did it matter, anyway?

There was nothing back in Lucasta. Only death from young age.

Hours later, a pink strip appeared in the far end of the sky. The birds, which had so far called out only occasionally, started making a ruckus. Mom stopped. Mel still held her hand but this time didn't urge her forward. It was only a matter of time before Mom would try to turn back. They had walked for hours, and Mom usually took the trains. Even Mel's own feet—and hips, along with her back and shoulders—hurt from walking and half-dragging two others along the soft and slippery ground.

Then Mom smiled. It was already light enough to see the corners of her mouth lift. There was something bright and strange in Mom's eyes, almost as strange as the bright softlights that were now fading away and the pinkness that was spreading in their stead.

"This is called sunrise, Mel. He told me once—your Dad."

They stopped again when the water on the ground—dew—had finally evaporated from the grass blades. They sat on a big, flat boulder amid the grass.

"The stone is warm, Mel," Mom said wonderingly. "Not cold at all."

Mel nodded.
Too warm,
she thought. According to her computer, only two hours had passed since the brightlights ball had floated into the sky. In Lucasta, stone needed many more hours to warm up—and brightlights period was not much warmer than softlights, anyway.

The ball had turned from red into yellow. Finally it looked like the sun Mel knew.

Mel spread the blanket and settled Mom onto it, then handed her a piece of bread and cheese with fruit. She didn't have much food, or fancy food. She'd taken only what was easy to pack and carry. Mel had planned on finding something like a FastNutritiousDelicious, Inc. place where they were going, or at least a cookingstat.

She now looked down at the knee-high grass, the blades still and stiff after the wind had left together with the softlights, and wondered just what she'd find.

The medstat stood beside them, swaying gently on its wheels. Some tiny, red-brown creatures were crawling over the stone on many legs towards the crumbs from Mom's sandwich.

"What are they, Mel? A new model of cleaningstat?"

Mel watched a creature haul a crumb onto its back and carry it off. The crumb was bigger than the creature.

"I think it's an old model, Mom. A very, very old one."

"It's doing a good job. This looks like a good place, Mel." Mom smiled again.

***

Half an hour later, the red brightlights ball in the sky was swallowed by something large and dark-gray. The grayness spread through the sky, and everything became darker.

"Let's go, Mom."

Meliora didn't like the stillness of the yellowish grass, and she didn't like the heavy, stiff warmth in the air. It was too warm. Both Mom and Mel were sweating, and Mel had to ask the medstat for the right pills for that. For some reason it hadn't dispensed them by itself.

The medstat wheeled in place as Mel urged it and Mom forward again. The slope was becoming even steeper, and dragging the machine was harder than before.

"Let me help." Mom let go of Meliora's hand and took one of the medstat's. Soon she was gasping, and her dress was so drenched with sweat that it clung to her.

"Stop it, Mom, I can do this by myself. Here, medstat."

"No!" Mom met her eyes for longer than ever, her gaze as bright as the red ball in the sky had been.

"I am a person, Meliora, not a burden to be coddled or left behind!"

"But I would never leave you, you know that..."

"No. No. Of course
you
wouldn't. I am so sorry, my girl." Mom let go of the medstat and hugged her, kissed her face. Mom's face was wet and smelled of sweat and tears.

Unfamiliar smells. Mom had always smelled of the latest soft soap and of the most fashionable perfume. The smells were as unfamiliar as the strange, heavy smell that had permeated the air.

It smelled of storm. The gray-black things in the sky were clouds, and the eerie stillness that had chased the wind away was the calm before the storm.

Just like in the wonderful experiences, or specifically the
electrocuted in a thunderstorm
one.

Meliora grabbed her mother's and the medstat's hands and started running to the trees.

Trees were shelter. Trees could protect you even from the wrath of the sky. Raindrops started splattering on their heads and arms, hissing as they met the medstat's body, reacting with the heat of the metal.

The medstat shook and screeched as if in protest.

"Come on," Mel urged it. Mom had grabbed the machine's other hand, and the two of them dragged it forward. "Come on, medstat. You can do this. You're made to withstand rain."

Lucastan rain, gentle, scheduled rain that never truly hid the brightlights or softlights when falling. Not rain that battered you into crawling in the grass and mud. A ribbon of brightness split the sky. It was quite different from the sunrise ribbon. A moment later the sky rumbled. Mel thought boulders rolling down a slope would sound like this, or perhaps trains crashing into each other.

"Into the trees..." Mel coughed, spitting out water. It tasted strange, perhaps of sky. "Please, Mom, go faster!" She dragged Mom, crawling, and she dragged the medstat, her pants and shirt tearing at the elbows and knees. The medstat didn't offer to bandage her. It had fallen into the grass and mud, its wheels still rotating in the air. Mel kept dragging it while something inside it screeched from time to time, as if in protest. As if the machine was whimpering.

The wind had come back, but it wasn't the gentle wind of before. It made the rain go sideways, and battered the trees until they, too, screeched.

Mom lost her balance and fell on her stomach, yelping. Mel wrapped one of her arms tightly around her and half carried her. Mom had been beautiful yesterday, but now sad, torn blades of grass marred her hair, and her face was streaked with mud. Her dress clung soaked and shapeless to her limbs, making her look like a doll made of sharp sticks—like one of these ugly toys very little children got, when they were still too young to enjoy the wonderful experiences properly.

No one knew why children and wonderful experiences didn't mix, just like they didn't know why a person couldn't have a mate before they were an adult—and, of course, no one asked.

So easy, Mel thought. It must be so easy to be a true, non-pretending natural. To never wonder about things no one else even noticed but you, to never ache without even knowing what you were aching for.

To never drag your mother through darkness and mud. To never care that your mother would "
leave.
"

"I hate naturals!" Meliora suddenly shouted in the storm, and the rain poured into her mouth and throat, gagging her. She hated the city that had looked at her as if she weren't right since her very birth. She hated the wonderful experiences, the Academy, and Jerome who wouldn't teach her what really mattered—the interweb, too, that ocean of supposed knowledge!

The medstat reached for her with the metal hand she wasn't clutching. Her rain-filled eyes didn't see it, but she felt its gentle tug on her elbow. A shot. It was trying to administer a shot.

"Don't do this—you stupid machine." Meliora coughed, rain sputtering out of her mouth. She jerked her elbow away, and her hand slipped, releasing the medstat's, pushing the medstat away from her. Two seconds after that, the sky erupted in light as if thousands of suns had risen. There was a roar, and the medstat started smoking.

The medstat rolled down the slope and didn't stop until it hit a small lonely boulder. There, the machine lay broken and still. Mel's skin was tingling, and Mom was crying beside her, Mom's belly in the mud and her hands pressed to her ears.

There were other flashes of blinding light. There were other thunders, too. Silently, Mel wrapped an arm around Mom's waist and crawled upwards—fast, and faster, ignoring the searing pain in her hands, knees, and elbows, ignoring the lump in her throat, as well as Mom's dragging weight and hiccups.

The sky went for metal—it went for metal first. She knew it, from the theater of wonderful experiences. She also knew that if a human happened to be touching the metal while lightning struck, the lightning would go for the human, too. It could go
straight
for the human without the metal.

The medstat had saved her.

Somehow she dragged herself and Mom underneath the trees. They were tall, dark green trees with pointy leaves, like needles. Lucasta didn't have trees like this. Evil witches from children's fairytales did. Needles sprinkled the ground beneath the trees, where it was dark and relatively dry. Mom was gasping harder and started coughing. Mel turned her over and made her spit out some of the water in her lungs. Mom spit out mud, too, and something that looked redder and darker.

Minutes later, when a semblance of breath had returned to her, Meliora crawled on. She left Mom beneath the tree. Mom was in no condition to crawl or be dragged, and Mel had neither a medstat to patch her up, nor even the pills and bandages a medstat carried. The lightning had probably burned them, too—and even if it hadn't, Mel could not risk going out from beneath the trees into the rain and lightning to check.

Without a medstat, you could drown. Jerome had shown her that. Jerome was the first to show her that water wasn't only a friend but also an enemy.

Her food was out there in the rain, too, where she'd dropped her backpack. There must be food somewhere here. Right? That much she remembered from feeds and wonderful experiences. She crawled a bit more, and then the trees ended abruptly. The ground, so far sloping, suddenly plunged down vertically. Raging, fizzling, shining water was falling off the cliff in waves. It could be falling until the end of eternity, for all Meliora knew. The rain itself was subsiding, occasional drops now drifting from the sky.

That waterfall was...beautiful. She spent a moment watching it, even though everything inside her screamed that she must go on, find food, make her mother live. How could nature, so cruel, possess something more beautiful than anything she had ever seen in the city? How could it confuse her like this?

Well, it'd better have something good about it. Something better than ancient models of cleaningstats
.

There was something down beside the falling water that looked like shelter. The FastNutritiousDelicious, Inc. that she sought, perhaps. It looked out of place, somehow it didn't belong to nature. Mel must get down to make her purchase, then get back up to Mom...

"Ah, hello young lady," someone said behind her back, and Meliora jumped. "I see you have discovered my home."

Meliora stifled a scream at what she saw.

Witch

The woman looked like Doctor Eryn and Great-Granddad Nicolas—and yet she didn't look like them at all. Eryn and the old Nicolas had hollowed eyes and wrinkles, true, and Meliora had thought that the two of them looked terrible. Now she realized they had only born
city
wrinkles on their faces, just signs of old age.

This woman's wrinkles were carved by blistering heat and cruel winds. Her skin was as rough as the tree bark beside her or the dirt beneath her feet.