Time Salvager (Time Salvager #1)(49)
Elise began to panic. What if they were coming upstairs? She had just witnessed one of them assault the poor guy doing his job. The last thing she wanted was to be in these guys’ custody. She bolted toward the exit. The short hallway had only an elevator and an adjacent door. She watched, horrified, as the lights on the elevator began to climb toward her level. Her only other path was through the door. She slammed into the door and entered a dimly lit stairwell. Elise looked over the ledge and realized just how high up she was. It was a long way down.
She gritted her teeth and began to hurtle down the stairs two and three steps at a time. She made it about halfway down the building when a loud crack reverberated through the stairwell above her. She heard men shouting. She quickened her pace and, a few minutes later, burst through the lobby door, where she found the attendant still unconscious on the floor near the desk.
Not knowing what to do, she ran out of the Heights and into the blue-colored tunnels. It was then she realized, in her hurry, she had forgotten to grab the chem suit. She cursed, knowing that it was far too risky to go back for it. She had to press on. Elise joined the flow of traffic moving away from the hotel, trusting that as long as she moved with the flow and didn’t bring attention to herself, there should be no way those two uniformed men could follow her in these thick crowds.
Though she had walked down the tunnels just an hour earlier, she had been too frazzled and James too much in a hurry for her to notice her surroundings. Now, as she wandered through the colorfully painted passageways, she took the opportunity to study this piece of the future. The first thing she noticed was how packed everyone was. There were hundreds of people about, some walking, some of whom looked like vendors selling wares and services, and some begging. Heck, she even noticed prostitutes, both male and female. The second thing she noticed was that everything was a sty, with layers of brown and gray residue that seemed to cake onto the ground, the walls, the lights, even the people.
It saddened her. So far in the future, everything was much worse. There were very few places this bad in the late twenty-first century. The world governments had banded together a generation earlier to stamp out poverty and hunger, and were mostly successful in achieving their goals. Money and resources were poured into research for disease cures, new food resources, and reusable energy. Low-cost construction and social safety net plans helped eliminate homelessness and sickness. Countries dismantled their armies and reduced military costs in favor of diplomacy and peace. Everything seemed to be heading in the right direction. Somehow, civilization had taken a wrong turn, and now whatever gains had been made during her time were lost again.
A few minutes after walking into the tunnel, her breathing became labored, reminding her of the first time she had gone scuba diving. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t take in a full breath. Thinking it was just the adrenaline of being chased, she continued on, moving through the blue tunnels until she turned right at one intersection and accidentally found herself on the surface, standing under a gray drab sky.
The sun’s rays just peeked through the thick, fast-moving clouds that sped across the horizon, Elise was struck by their hazy glow, as if a film of grease covered the atmosphere.
She glanced at her surroundings. It was more crowded up here than below, with lines of people moving in every direction as if on some mad scientist’s assembly line. Here and there, pockets of people—those not standing in lines—sat in huddled groups, looking on with resignation as those with places to go passed them by. Elise saw a child, barefoot and in rags, pull on his mother’s sleeves and giggle at her.
Elise brushed her fingers against the oddly tinted breeze that seemed to hold subtle but visible dimensions—she could actually see which direction the wind was blowing. Her breathing became worse and her senses began to wither under a barrage of attacks. Her head ached, her nose began to burn, and her eyes watered. When she tried to inhale, she felt as if she were sucking in a mouthful of smoke. She dropped to one knee and tried to steady herself. She felt as if she were drowning.
An old woman—a vendor of some sort carrying a tray of what looked like wilted grass—tapped her on the arm and began to speak, her voice muffled and distant. Elise cocked her head to one side and gestured one hand at her ear. The woman, looking irritated, spoke louder and even faster. Nothing she said made any sense. Elise pointed at both ears this time. She couldn’t make out anything the woman was saying. She shook her head and shrugged. Finally, as if fed up, the woman took a pinch of the grass and jammed it into Elise’s mouth.
“Eat this,” she said, or something along those lines.
Too surprised to protest, Elise obediently chewed. She didn’t usually chew whatever someone stuffed in her mouth, but there was too much going on right now for her to protest. Immediately, a wave of nausea passed over her and then everything went numb. First her tongue, then her sense of smell evaporated, and then any feeling she had from her hands down to her toes was gone. All her senses just seemed to dampen.
“You can breathe in again, off-worlder,” the old woman said, this time purposely speaking in a slow, drawn-out voice. “The cany weed blocks all the good stuff that you aliens aren’t used to.”
“Thanks,” Elise said, breathing in deeply. The air still burned the hairs on her nostril a bit but it wasn’t debilitating like it had been previously. She touched her face with her hand and couldn’t feel her fingers.