Thursday, December 4, 2008

Water at $35 a pint

Water at $35 a pint. She wondered what had caused the price to drop like that, not that it mattered, she was thrilled to see it under $40. She dug in her pocket and extracted $36, staring at the soda pop tabs that passed for money, though the old folks still called them dollars to remind themselves of better days. Score, now she could splurge and really brush her teeth.
There wasn't enough water anymore to make more soda, so what money was out there was what there was.

Turning on her heel she made her way down the sidewalk, stepping over newspaper covered bodies that were either sleeping or dead. No way to know until the sweepers came through on their weekly tour of the neighborhood.

She cut through an alley, made dark by the towering buildings on either side, as well as the thick smog that filtered the sunlight like cheesecloth. She cursed when her booted foot sank into a pothole. The asphalt slowly began to crumble around her ankle and spread like a spiderweb, ever outward until her own weight sent her through the newly created hole and into a dark pit.

She landed with a grunt, cursing at the pain that radiated up her leg from her newly twisted ankle, and wondering how she would find her scattered money in the blackness. As she sat in the dark contemplating her dilemma her ears filtered a new sound into her mind. It was unlike anything she'd ever heard, like a constant wind blowing between buildings, and she strained to focus on the source of it.

Climbing to her feet she limped toward the sound, her heart racing as it grew louder. She held her hands out in front of her, feeling blindly for a wall, and smiling when she found it with her fingertips. Gliding her hands along the rough surface, her brows knit when the texture changed from stone to metal, and upon further examination she discovered a doorknob.

Turning the knob, the door opened with a stiff groan, like an old man who has sat too long and now needs to use the bathroom. Bright light pierced the blackness and she squinted against it until her eyes adjusted, enabling her to peek around the edge of the door and see what lay beyond.

She couldn't believe her eyes. Frantically pulling on the door she ran through the opening and stopped on a metal platform overlooking a vast lake of crystal clear water being fed by a river that rushed out from the earth. Her breath came in white puffs in the cold air of the lake room and she looked up at the enormous ice stalactites that dripped into the lake, sending overlapping rings across the surface.

A started yip escaped her lips when an automated globe flew into her field of vision, its blue light scanning her from tip to toe until finding her barcode under the cuff of her shirt. Its light went red, and a voice she recognized as the president's filled the room, Warning. Unauthorized entry by non-H2Opia personnel. Neutralize threat.

Her eyes went wide for a moment as the globe's red light turned to cross hairs and a single blast from its laser port struck her in the chest. The impact sent her back through the doorway, and she lay staring blindly at the hole through which she fallen, her money glinting around her.

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