Anything for Mama

The days were long and strange in 2056. The Upland Overriding had taken hold several years before, and citizens of the Earth were in struggle over its’ most precious commodity. No longer did countries go to war over oil. It was far simpler than that. People were on their basic needs for survival. They went to war over WATER.

Global Warming had long exacerbated the world. It was as dry as a peach pit in 2056- and boiling. Temperatures had risen to all time highs. I lived in what used to be the Bay Area of California. It used to have an average temperature of 80 to 90 degrees in summer. Those days were long gone- we now battled daily temps of 110 to 115. I do not want to talk about heat waves.

All the things I grew up with are just fuzzy memories to me now. Power was a luxury we did not have to worry about, as were swimming pools. You can now go to jail for possession of a swimming pool, or even deciding to get one. Every home has its own solar panels which cause their own misery. Folks that take the inexpensive route to installing or fixing their own panels run the risk of acquiring dirty electricity. DE was a non-regulated type of electrical current flowing freely through one’s home. It was associated with various types of cancer. Vandals had stricken the home I lived in with my mother. They attempted to steal the precious copper out of our grid we had for the solar panels, and ran into Associated Force, the local authorities that continually cruise for environmental crimes. While AF did not get their men- we got dirty electricity after our grid was left a mess. My mother soon came down with a rare cancer, and she was gone in the year.

My life was turned upside down. I worked and lived for my mother. Environmental problems came along with Global Warming, and with those – disease. I lost my ability to have children early in life, so my mother had become my child. My sisters came and stripped our home afterward and all I had left of her was her locket she wore around her neck. It was a heart shaped gold locket, with a diamond on its façade. Inside, there was a black and white photo of her and I when I was a baby. She wore it every day after I was born. We were awfully close.

I went to go live in the Lab Apartments after that with my cat Smokey. The Lab Apartments were these generic domiciles outside of the Lab I worked at. Small, square, and institutionalized, they did not have much harmony or feelings of home. A few photos of Mom and our old life together, a knit afghan handed down from my beautiful grandmother and Smokey made things better. I did not mind the Lab Apartments. I was basically existing anyway. They fulfilled many of my basic requirements and were safe. Our panels and grids were protected, and the Lab provided a good food source with a faint memory of a glass of cold water every once in a while. It was OK.

The Lab I worked at was governmentally funded. We grew and facilitated a food source that could sustain a hungry belly on one tablet a day. Food- the stuff that you or I once knew, loved, and dreamed about had become obsolete. We grew carefully guarded greens with government rationed water and placed them with a high performing protein. They were not all that dynamic, but the tablets did the trick as far as staving off starvation. We also had an experimental garden we used for turning soil for the alfalfa we used, and we were able to grow an occasional tomato or squash with leftover mist. Occasionally, I was able to cull together a salad, and it was marvelous. The Lab was not a bad place to be. I had friends, air conditioning, sustenance, and safety. Occasionally, we even cultivated cannabis and had a laugh.

It was far safer than the normal streets. Years ago, we had houses. People did not ransack them or even come close to your door without announcing themselves. When the Upland Overriding occurred, a band of homeless mutants came together and did a particularly good job of taking over the government. Homelessness became so bad from Global Warming, lack of water and clean air that certain people without cover mutated. Epigenetics took over and controlled their genes. The heat and exposure caused aggressive behavior. That, coupled with severe vitamin deficiencies from lack of vegetables caused tremendous boils and rivulets in the skin. Pollution reigned over every bodily function, so they gave birth to more and more aggressive children with painful skin. Their headquarters took place in an old, vacant winery in a town called Upland when they took over, hence giving the name the Upland Overriding. The only thing that quelled their tempers or skin was water- and we had little of it. Every drop was heavily purloined from any resource they could find, hence giving them the name The Aquafers. The Aquafers became the majority in the country and took over government. They had not yet come for a lab “inspection”, and I was dreading every minute of it.

I wore my locket everyday under my uniform, as I kept my Mama close. I hid it well as it would be snatched from me if I did not. I needed to keep us close, our memories of the peaceful good times soothed me and made me feel safe somehow. I did not mind the cool sheen of the locket against my heart. It belonged there.

The day came unfortunately where The Aquafers stopped by the Lab for a surprise inspection. We had been stashing vegetables and water as well as surplus tablets, soil, an old boom box from the 80’s and a mixed tape with Michael Jackson on it. We would take out the boom box on the occasional moments we shared cannabis and a rare salad, hence it was guarded heavily.

I had slept in quite late with Smokey the day the visit occurred and when I arrived at the Lab, all bedlam had broken out. The Aquafers had gone aggressive with the high temperatures since it was a summer day, and they were shaking down the Lab for all water or anything else that caught their eye. They had my boss the Lab Coordinator hog tied in his office, and he was sweating horribly.

“Jess”, he instructed me with labored breath. “Go show them the Wells.”

The Wells were one source we had in an outdoor growing room. Occasionally, there was still water in them. It would be a welcome distraction. I led one of them out with me. I tried not to inhale as the mutants had a strange, sulfurous smell that reminded me of battery acid. She was heavily pregnant and losing her teeth and hair. She took a long taser on a stick and pointed at me as we walked to the Wells.

It was my good luck and fortune that the Wells had a tiny bit of waters in them. They were not the prettiest. They were brown with a sulfurous aroma on their own. I had shown down the light to the Wells to show Sprue where it was. The pregnant one must have seen the locket shimmering in the moonlight on me, as she wanted it.

“What’s this little pretty? “…Her stubby finger riddled with warts went over the chain around my neck. “I want it!” and before I could say a word, she snapped it off my neck. The locket had a thin 18 karat chain from Italy that was lovely and delicate but not strong. I had a grease stain on my uniform where Sprue, the pregnant Aquifer had touched me. Her breath was as foul as Three Mile Island and had a reactor smoke aroma.

“Please no”. I begged. “That was from my mother and it’s one of the few things I have to keep me sane. I can give you other things. Better water. More tablets. A Boom Box. Please?” I continued. “Just please, please no locket.”

Sprue looked at me greedily.

‘Show me”, she snarled. I swear green fumes gathered around her.

She clumsily waved at me to move on with the taser. I took the end of the taser, pulled it towards me. I positioned her at light speed in front of the Wells and pushed her in with her end. Before she went in, I grabbed the locket. A green haze shot out of her mouth as she fell over the edge into the brown syrup like waters. I heard a moan and a sizzle as she reached the waters.

It was my choice now. I could either return to the office or I could go grab Smokey and head into the mountains in my solar car. I chose the latter. I wanted Smokey, my locket, my afghan from Grandma and peace away from The Aquafers. The Lab had secret properties in the Santa Cruz mountains that I could access for the night and figure out a plan. I ran.

I made it into my apartment and grabbed Smokey, some food for her, the pictures, extra money, Grandma’s blanket. I put on a change of clothing and grabbed a jacket (now made of recycling and residual soda in the bottoms of Coke cans) and headed toward my solar car. Time was of the essence.

My Lab partner Rich was waiting at my car, hiding.

“I thought you would never get here! We do not have time to lose. Get in and I am driving!” he said in a whispered tone. “The Aquafers just went to look for you guys.”

He pulled out of the back of the complex and off into the night. Time had slipped away from us this day.

“Sprue is at the bottom of the Wells. She tried to take something from me and that’s where she ended up” I explained. “We have very little time.”

Rich stepped on it. He put the security block on my dashboard so we would not be detectable by most radars or computer programs. They had gotten wicked over the years. We cruised up what used to be Highway 17 up into the Santa Cruz mountains and took Summit Ave exit. One left turn and we were into deep bramble. Global Warming had killed all the trees years ago, leaving a foul vine that stunk with inch long thorns. It lived on old pollution hence the smell.

We arrived at the entrance of the Lab facility. The Trash Vine had covered the entrance. We cut a path through to the doors. We covered my solar car with the vine and then covered the door after we stepped in. It was obvious nobody had been there for a while, but it still had supplies, power we did not use and a stash of things someone had placed up there for a night like tonight.

We found another blanket, some candles, some tablets, and some root vegetables. Someone had left a CD player there with a Steve Martin recording that was eighty years old, along with a bottle of wine and some maps. There was an Aquafers survival handbook as well. Rich was telling me he has been expecting the Aquafer visit for quite a while.

“I couldn’t think about working for those stink bugs”, he grinned. “They smell”.

We got cozy under the blankets and relaxed by having some wine and listening to Steve Martin Let’s Get Small. I gave Smokey some food and some water I had found in gas tank type container. There were at least fifty of them, as well as some vegetables and cannabis. She curled up next to us as we figured out our next place to get to. We would not have long here. My locket chain was not broken too badly. I found a way to clamp a few links together and have Mama close to my heart once again. Perhaps life would not be so bad after all. We had an adventure ahead of us, and we needed to rest. We felt sleepy after the wine and cannabis made us relaxed. Smokey curled up next to us as we giggled to the old Steve Martin recording. Tomorrow would be a big day.

THE END