The cat just blinked back. Nora felt vaguely guilty for unplugging Simon. She bit her lip.Right when I made some progress. But . . .
Nora then patted him roughly through the sheet. “I’ll plug you in the moment we get back, okay?” She yelled out back toward the bedrooms, “Tilly, you ready?”
“Almost!” Came an excited shout.
“Alright, hurry up. We gotta leave now if we’re gonna get back for your program.”
A few minutes later they were all suited up, ready to go. Nora put goggles over her eyes and a mask on her face to filter some of the dust out. Tilly had an identical pair on her face next to her.
Nora struggled as she pulled the door shut on her stucco house’s slanted hinges, then walked to an identical one a little distance away. Sometime in the distant past, this place was full of matching houses. Now nothing matched, and all were disheveled in their own way from the passage of unforgiving time.
They walked in through an open door that once held a garage, and she removed a tarp to display an old hovercraft. She handed the tarp to Tilly. “Here, put this in the back, I’ll get the gas.”
Tilly began bunching the tarp while Nora grabbed the syntho-gas cans and shook them, frowning as the liquid inside sloshed around.Ugh we’re really low. I’ll have to buy that first.She put over half their reserves into the hover and strapped down the rest in the back.
Nora looked over to Tilly, who had stood to the side while she filled the gas. “Stay back while I load up, okay?”
“I want to help.” Tilly’s eyes, the only part of her visible under the mask, were bright.
“Let me just get the big parts first. A lot of the pieces are sharp this time, don’t want you getting cut.” Nora fiddled with the gas can until Tilly was standing far away, helpfully collecting the copper wire and small brass doorknobs in a box.
She started loading the scrap metal into the backseat, her muscles straining while lifting the sharp metal pieces around the solar AC in the hover. Everything was carefully placed around the two worn power scooters she always kept in the back in case the hover broke down.
Nora examined the hover after it was loaded and frowned.Not as much as usual.In fact, it was only half-filled. That mall where she found Simon was full of metal, but she hadn’t been able to get as much, needing to fit him in too. And then when she went back it had started to rain, so she wasn’t able to get much then either.
It’s alright. Got the other stuff I’ve been saving that I’ll bring out.She had found a few scratched discs that presumably held old movies or songs, although the labels had long worn off. And a magazine—a smiling face still present—sealed in degraded, yellowed plastic. Ancient memories like that still held value, and Nora put them carefully in a container next to her, strapped securely to the hover’s floor.
That’s gonna just have to do. I’ll get more in the next week or so.Nora sighed, tapping on the hover’s rusted side. “Good enough.”
She looked over by Tilly, who was holding a box of smaller items. “Okay, you can put the little stuff in now. Carefully. I put all the sharp pieces on the other side but it’s still metal and can cut you.”
As Tilly climbed in, Nora did as well. She adjusted her seat before pulling a pistol from a box up front. Opening the chamber, she compulsively checked that the bullets were in it before sliding it back in her zippered pocket.That’s in order at least.She patted it from the outside on her outfit. There was no way she would go anywhere with people without packing some protection.
Nora glanced back at Tilly before starting the engine, “Got your seatbelt on?”
“Yep!” Tilly flashed a thumbs up, eyes shining behind her goggles.
Nora would have bet she had a wide grin too if she could see it underneath her mask. Tilly still got excited about going into town and seeing other people. It was nice she didn’t remember the bad parts.
As they exited the garage and turned onto the faded asphalt, a whirr made her glance up.Drone again.The drones never seemed to bother her, but when the dusty metal crafts hovered like they were directly watching, it made the hair on her arms stand up.
The hover rumbled and the controls shook as it idled. Nora checked the fuel level again and made a mental note of how much was in the tanks loaded in the back.More than enough to get us there.If they ran out of syntho-gas, it would be dangerous out in the desert. They had the scooters just in case, but still . . .
She opened the throttle and the miles flew by under their craft, taking them away from their home.
Away from Simon.
“Let’s check the list when we get there, okay?” Tilly reminded Nora, yelling over the roar of the engine. The hover was no longer silent, the noise dampeners long worn off, but it ran reliably.
“Okay,” Nora responded with a wince. Looking at the list for the names of the people called up to go to Mars always put her in a bad mood. She doubted they would ever be called like Tilly hoped.
Chapter two
Nora
They pulled into the Tyra gang’s trading area, the only place Nora was allowed to trade her scrap in. A flag on top of a pole matched the colors she had on her dash, the only bright spots on the dilapidated buildings all around.
Scavenging was not in fashion; there were easier ways to make money nowadays by staying close to town rather than searching through the depleted resources like Nora did, especially with metal not getting much money. But Nora was fine with the scraps. It gave her and Tilly their freedom.
