Gleaming metal walls rose three stories over my head. It
made me wonder what they were trying to keep out, or maybe keep in. The wide
road I’d been walking along, except for when a passing truck gently beeped to
encourage me to move out of the way, maybe as if I were a stray cow, passed in
under a wide arch in the wall. I couldn’t see any doors, but then maybe they
were the kind that rolled aside and were hidden in the wall.
I still hadn’t seen any other people.
The something standing by the gate at first I took for some
kind of public art. It had hinged metal legs, six of them, and a spherical body
of black glass. When I came close, it spoke to me.
“Ryan?” It was my sister’s voice.
“Cathy?” I stepped closer to the sphere. Inside the black
sphere, beneath the surface, I saw an image of her face, like a hologram, like
she was trapped there inside the glass.
“They’ve said I can record a message for you, so here goes,”
Cathy’s face said. She looked exhausted, worried, but hopeful. “They’re taking
us away while they clean up the mess we’ve made. And then they’re going to
bring us back, but it will take longer than a hundred years, they say. If you
want, you can come join us. We’re going to another planet, Ryan. You’d be so
excited.”
“Cathy,” I said again, even though I knew she couldn’t hear
me. “Who? Who’s taking you away?”
“I hope you got here safely, and that the pod worked and
everything. You never did test sending it forward more than a couple of weeks,
so, well, I hope you made it.” I could hear a tremble in her voice. “Please
come find us,” she said.
Her image disappeared.
“Is that all?” I asked the black sphere. “Where’s Cathy now?
Who’s she talking about? Who took her away?”
The thing began to move, its legs lifting gracefully and
touching down gently so that the sphere seemed to levitate over the ground. It
took a few steps through the arch, and then paused as if waiting for me to
follow.
I stepped into the city.
