Mend

Isla and Maltuhna had been traveling from Product Q for weeks. They wore masks to keep the dust from settling into their lungs. It was once recognized as a city, Dublin, in a country, Ireland. When such things existed. The community they had lived in was classified as medium, based on Product Q’s capacity, and named Mend, based on the group’s service. Isla was born in Mend but her Grandparents had grown up in Dublin.

She could not imagine what autonomy was like but they loved to tell her stories. They talked of making choices every day, some easy, some more difficult. What kind of coffee to buy and what sort of job you would like to do. They spoke of it the way you speak of a loved one lost. They would talk with their heads down, Grandma shaking hers while opening and closing the heart-shaped locket she had carried with her for decades. On one side, a print of her beloved dog she had when they first got married, and the other her nurse’s pin tucked behind a picture of Grandpa, almost lost when she was repositioned.

“I was a human nurse you know?” Grandma whispered.

“I know Grandma. I know.”

“They took everything from us.” Grandpa said, his face burning with anger and ale.

“You could have been anything back then, Isla, but now? What will come of you? Your parents never would have brought you into this world if they had a choice…”

“Mary!”

“What, it’s the truth you old fool. She needs to know the truth. There is no point in pretending anymore. Life is not supposed to be like this.”

Isla’s eyes filled with tears but she quickly shook off the memory. The dust was caked on her sweaty skin. Maltuhna was filthy. Isla had tried to brush her knots, but it was futile. Maltuhna was so patient, even when Isla forced a modified human filtration mask on her. She could tell in Isla’s voice that it was necessary, so she obliged.

“Any minute now, we are going to find some water and going to get cleaned up my friend,” Isla said, tossing her bag from one shoulder to the other.

She was trying to sound reassuring but Maltuhna could read her too well. She heard the drones overhead, but luckily had taken the tracking device of four AIUMS before leaving Mend, and now was using them to confuse their signal. She and Maltuhna could avoid being read as “animal class 1” and “animal class 2”, for a while anyway. She looked in every direction and could not see past the dust cloud they were in. She had heard of these storms and seen them from the protection of her domed village.... but to be in it. What she found hardest to imagine were the hills ever being anything but brown. Her Grandpa talked of animals grazing and birds singing, and she had only old documentaries and books he shared with her to visualize such things.

Maltuhna was one of few pets around. Most animals had not been repositioned, found to have no purpose in the new planetary model. Maltuhna could sniff out diseases and cancer in humans, and the AIUMS used her abilities, and canines like her, to do just that. These skills were developed to save humans but now it was used to eliminate them. If they were deemed a potential burden to society rather than an integral part, they would be eliminated. Maltuhna had sniffed out the cancer on Grandpa and it took everything Isla had not to hate her. She wanted to cast her out of her life forever. When She looked into Maltuhna’ s eyes and saw pools of sadness that ran deeper than her own, she no longer felt rage and just felt the weight. The burden of being a part of something, but never being something.

Facing the ground, they both pushed forward, through the cloud. Isla scanned the perimeter every minute or so. She was trying to figure out how much longer they could go with what supplies they had. They had agreed not to eat eachother. Visualizing what life would be like without one another was difficult anyway. Possibly she could find another group, but it was doubtful she would be motivated to carry on through whatever this was she was facing, alone, in the meantime.

“Ungh,” she groaned as she hit the floor. Malthuna growled and Isla quickly readjusted her mask and tried to focus in on the object she had just ran into.

It looked like a class 1 animal, like her. It was wearing a mask and appeared to have limbs identical to hers. AIUMS had given up this recognizable form long ago, no longer needing to manipulate the humans into accepting them. They slowly moved closer, as it got off the ground. About Isla’s height, it spoke.

“You are animals!” their voice was cracking under the excitement, startling Isla and Maltuhna.

Isla guessed the fellow animal to be younger than her, based on the tone of voice. She took inventory of the clothing and supplies, and it looked like they had just gone for a walk and gotten lost. They were wearing a beat up, oversized floppy hat and carried with them only a camel bag.

“How do I know you are an animal?” Isla said, half-heartedly, she wasn’t sure, but she had a feeling.

“Well, you don’t. So, best to be discerning.” They said this while pushing the glasses back up on their nose and staring down Isla.

“Ask me anything you think only a non-AIUM would say.”

Isla entertained this thought. “Who were your parents and where are they now?”

She knew that the old AIUMS, although programmed to act and built to look human, would not have quick answers to consecutive questions about family history that would not give them away. The tone, the inappropriate pauses, and the amount of time it takes to register would all be indicators.

“Theo and Rami Dissle, both from Forage, lost in the dust.” The answer came quick enough.

“Are you looking for them?” Isla was uncomfortably moving from foot to foot. Is she now on a mission to help this kid find their parents? How long have they been gone?

“I am Trean by the way, also from Forage, obviously.” Trean nervously waved. “I also don’t know where they are, but I am not looking for them. I was looking for you.”

Isla got defensive, stepping back and putting her hand on her knife.

Trean laughed. “Um, not like that. I just meant I go out here looking for survivors. I have digital compass that I managed to hide from the AIUMS on one of my foraging trips. I hope that my parents are one of them one day, but it has been a couple years.”

“I am sorry Trean.” Isla could see that deep pool of sadness in their eyes as well, never-ending, like what she has read of the ocean. Dark pools of blue and green that reach parts that no one else can see.

“I am Isla, and this is Maltuhna. We have nowhere to go but we can’t go back home. Project Q is…well there was a situation.”

“A meltdown or did class one fight back? Nevermind, we must hurry. You can tell me once you are safe. Our place is underground, not everyone looks like us but they are to be trusted. They are all animals.”

Her mind was racing. She had never seen other classes of animals except through torn-out faded pages of books and magazines. She finally nodded and the three of them headed back through the dust as Trean continued.

“The people of Forage escaped when they decided to break up our groups and split up our families again. They felt there were not enough parts nearby for it to be a viable occupation for us but not room for all of us at a new location. We stumbled upon this underground network created by other groups of animals, ones that had escaped the first planet cleanse. They welcomed us, they will welcome you too.”

“They don’t hold grudges…”

“No. We are united by our shared threat. We need each other. We are lucky the other animal classes are able to forgive.”

As they climbed down two sets of intricate, felled tree stairs, the air changed. Trean directed them to take their mask off and Isla had never smelled anything like it. She could only connect it to the scent of coffee her Grandpa had saved over the years. Class 1 animals were no longer allowed to transport through time, but he said putting that coffee to his nose was the next best thing. The smell was familiar and felt like home, although she knew she had never been to a place like this before. Immediately, they were escorted to a small room in the very back of a long, narrow tunnel. There were brightly lit moving objects circling around them, illuminating their path.

“Those aren’t machines?” Isla said, slightly frightened of them.

“No! Insects. Lampyridae. You can call them lamps. Pretty cool, huh?”

“Very cool.” Isla let one land on her finger and upon close inspection could indeed see it’s insect properties. She had never come across bugs of light before though, in any of her texts.

The room they were led to looked to be under construction but there was fresh water and a pallet to lay on and green sprouting through the dirt on the walls. Maltuhna and Isla curled up together as Trean closed the curtain behind them. Trean wanted them to rest before letting inspections begin. From the chatter on the other side of the wall, there were many introductions to be made.

A small ant that had attached itself to Maltuhna before they left Project Q was now creating a small tunnel in the sidewall. It was able to cover three times the space of a biological ant and would be miles away by dawn.