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4
I screamedas the car left the roof. To me, it seemed a natural reaction. Or not, judging by Serena’s face.
She sighed. “Calm down. We’re perfectly safe.”
“We’re not on the ground,” I retorted. I might not know much, but I understood gravity.
“It’s called flying. Birds do it, and so can machines. We’re emitting an antigravity field that keeps us aloft.”
“Until it fails,” was my dark reply as I peeked out the window to see us moving quickly over buildings. If we fell, we’d die for sure.
“Get used to it. This is the main mode of transportation on the surface.”
“How big is the surface?” It appeared to go on forever.
“New Banff itself is five miles around. Then you’ve got about a hundred miles of reclamation land before the next city.”
“What’s reclamation land?”
“The areas we’ve been rehabilitating, trying to bring back the nature that was lost. And that’s much too complicated a subject to delve into now. We’re almost there.”
Almost where? My head spun. Events moved quickly, introducing me to concepts I had a hard time wrapping my mind around.
We landed on a roof, without dying, alongside other vessels similar to ours. When my door opened, I flung myself outside, then eyed the sky suspiciously in case another car arrived and squished me. In newly discovered caves with stalactites, we had to be careful at all times in case one shook loose from the ceiling as we excavated. Dangerous, but worth it given the beauty that lived only shortly as we cleared the cavern and prepped it for use.
Which made me think of what the commander had said, that all Cave dwellers wanted to live on the surface. How could I want something I’d never known existed? At the same time, I must have innately known, as the fear of being crushed in a cave-in no longer assailed me.
Serena joined me. “Told you it would be fine.”
“This time.”
“I swear, Cavers are all the same.”
It felt like an insult. I tried to regain my composure by asking more questions. “How many Marked have you met?”
“More than you can count. I’ve been doing this a long time.”
I could count over a hundred. Part of the reason why I worked some of the more complex tasks. Although I had often wondered, what if there were more than one hundred objects? Would the numbers keep moving upward? Had anyone else ever wondered this?
She gestured. “Let’s get off the roof deck out of the cold.”
I followed her to an elevator much more ornate than the two I’d seen so far. What startled me was the sight of someone in there with us, behind glass.
I sidled closer to Serena, only to realize the woman watching me also crept closer to… Wait. How could there be two Serenas?
I reached out to touch the smooth surface. Cold and hard. My fingers touched those of the woman on the other side as I said, “What is this?”
“A mirror. It shows your reflection.”
I’d seen my reflection before in metal, but never in anything this clear or sharp. I touched my face. “This is what I look like.”
“You’re pretty.”
I had only the vaguest idea what that meant. I did, however, enjoy my appearance.
Serena had instructions for me. “When we get there, speak only if spoken to, or you’ll make me look bad amongst the other handlers. And before you ask, handlers are people like me in charge of the Marked.”
The elevator doors opened onto a busy place. People crowded the room and hallway before us, many of them women dressed like Serena in the deeper shades of red and blue, although only Serena wore both at once. I didn’t feel as self-conscious upon seeing other females dressed like me in white, one whose curvaceous body was even more revealed than mine. A few men were part of the waiting group, the ones in white tall and broad of shoulder, their skin clear and hair thick in direct contrast to some of their handlers. The shortest one was bald and overweight. Not an often seen condition in the Caves, where food remained scarce.
