Several seconds passed. Was he dead?
“Thomas, come on!” Tori shouted.
Peeking from beneath his hood, he saw what was left of the drone lying in a pile of metal a few yards away. Sparks shot from the broken pieces. He rose, legs trembling. Giving the hideous thing a wide berth, he approached Tori just as she shoved what looked like a gun in her pack.
“What was that?”
“A drone zapper. At least that’s what we call it.”
Brianna and her children emerged from behind the dumpster. “Norman was really good at tech stuff. He made a few for our church.”
Carla wandered over to Thomas and slipped her hand in his. “Don’t worry, Thomist. God protects us.”
Her dark, curly hair bobbed in the wind while shining from her face was more peace than Thomas had felt in years.
“Come on. We need to keep moving.” Pivoting, Tori started off. “I just hope that drone didn’t get a good look at you,” she shouted over her shoulder.
Though Thomas tried to release little Carla’s hand, she only gripped him tighter and tugged him along, smiling up at him.
The NWU housing that Thomas had heard so much about turned out to be nothing but a five-story building that stretched for a block. Very few windows and no balconies decorated the front, making it look more like a prison than luxury living. No greenery surrounded it either, no parks nearby, no restaurants or stores, and certainly not the swimming pools and gardens he’d been told filled the inner courtyard.
Tori led them around back to a large garage door where no doubt supplies were loaded.
“You can’t get in without a pass,” Thomas said, “and if you have one, they’ll spot you the minute you enter.”
A sudden breeze blew a strand of her wavy hair across her face as she stared at him curiously, almost as if she pitied him. “We know. How do you think we survived all these years?”
Embarrassed once again, Thomas took a step back. In his world, he’d been in command, in charge, the one to whom people looked for answers. But this was not his world. Neither was it anything like he’d been told.
Tori knocked on the door, a specific sequence of knocks and taps that reminded Thomas of the ancient Morse code he’d read about.
They stood outside for what seemed like hours as the sun’s rays speared through him, igniting his headache once again. Sweat streamed down his back. He stank. His stomach gnawed his insides. But how could he complain when the little girl beside him stood happily humming to herself?
The garage door cranked a few feet off the ground. Dropping to the pavement, Tori squeezed through. Brianna handed the baby to her and then grabbed Carla’s hand and followed.
Thomas barely fit through the opening. Once inside, and after his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw Tori hugging a large bear of a man who spoke with her in hushed tones. He closed the door and led them through a stockroom and then into an elevator.
“Thomas, this is Bart. Bart, Thomas,” Tori said. “He helped me escape.”
“Then I owe you a big hug!” the man said as they exited at the fourth floor.
“No, that’s…” But the man was already squeezing the life out of him. Thomas couldn’t remember the last time anyone hugged him, especially a man, and with such genuine exuberance. Bart didn’t smell much better than Thomas, but somehow, he didn’t care. The man exuded joy.
Maybe things weren’t so bad in the NWU housing, after all.
Releasing him, Bart smiled, revealing several missing teeth that made him look like a pirate of old. Gesturing down the hall, he said to Tori, “Sara’s in the last door to your right.”
“Thanks, Bart. I owe you one.”
“Naw. Anything for you.” And off he went.
They passed several rooms, most with open doors. Shock and confusion raged through Thomas at what he saw. Several people inhabited each room that couldn’t be any larger than his master bathroom at home. Some sat around TV screens mounted on walls, others lay passed out on the floor, while others had virtual reality goggles wrapped around their heads.
He’d been told that each family received a large suite with enough rooms to fit the number of people in their household. In addition, they were given a universal monthly income that would more than suffice for necessities, along with free internet, TV, access to the Metaverse and all the drugs and medicines they required. If anyone needed extra money, the NWU provided jobs that fit their qualifications. Of course, most of the common masses preferred not to work. Only those with higher intellect and ability received the best jobs. Capitalism had been an abject failure, creating an unfair system that spawned poverty and elevated the wealthy…or so he’d been taught.
Somewhere a baby cried. Down the hall in the opposite direction, two women shouted obscenities at each other. And the smell—the stench of too many people confined in too small a place, a mixture of urine, body odor, and rotten food—added nausea to Thomas's ailments.
They stopped before one of the rooms, and Tori rapped her knuckles on the open door.
