Time Salvager (Time Salvager #1)(50)
“Numbness takes getting used to,” the woman said. “It’s good grass, eh? Good cany weed.”
Elise nodded.
“Stuff will wear off before dark, girl. You’ll need more. You want?” The old woman held up the basket. “Works good.”
Elise shook her head. “I don’t have any…” What did they even use for money here? “I have no way to pay. I’m sorry.”
The old woman looked down at Elise in disgust and snorted. “Alien scum with fancy clothes and no scratch. And you take my sample. Fuck you, off-worlder shit!” For a second, the not-so-kindly-looking old woman looked like she was about to reach into Elise’s mouth and take back her cany weed sample. Instead, she turned and stormed off.
Elise watched as the woman disappeared into the mass of people, becoming just another stooped figure in an assembly line of hunched-over shadows. She took another breath and looked around. Whatever this weed was doing, it was working, though Elise wished she knew more about what was going on with her body.
Well, what was done was done. Elise picked herself up and explored the area, making sure to keep the blue tunnel exit within sight at all times. The last thing she needed was to get lost and not be able to find her way back to the Heights. Eventually, James would come back, right? He’d better. If she lost James in this strange world, she was as good as dead. For now, she just had to stay away long enough in the vicinity until those guys were gone.
Elise turned around in a slow circle and scanned her surroundings. She was standing in a vast plaza sandwiched in between gigantic buildings on three sides. Each of the buildings was easily a hundred stories tall, their tops lost in the low-hanging clouds. It was also scalding hot down here. At first Elise had thought that running from those strange men had made her feel flushed. It wasn’t until a few seconds later that she realized her face was already sunburned from the brief exposure to the elements, even though the sun was nowhere in sight, hidden by the buildings, smog, and weirdly colored winds.
The fourth side of the plaza was a ten-lane street that had vehicles buzzing by at different speeds. Each lane had a set speed attached to it, from the slowest human-drawn wagons to high-tech speedsters that passed by in a blur.
Using her forearm to protect her face from the sun, Elise explored the plaza, moving with the crowds and checking out the vendors one by one. She was surprised to find that nothing much had changed. In fact, most of the stuff being sold she could find back in the poorest countries of her time, except she was in a major metropolis. It was as if she had gone backward in time instead of forward. There were people selling vegetables, grain trinkets, small electronics, primitive-looking tools, and even some firearms. To her shock, she even found a stall where people were being sold.
Elise shook her head in disgust and continued on her way, turning down another street and seeing more of the same. This time, she entered what could only be called a beggars’ row. Here, hundreds of vagrants sat meekly together, desolate and dirty, begging for food or money. The smell overwhelmed the cany weed and made her queasy. Her work back in her time often took her to desolate places filled with poverty and filth, but this place, in the middle of a major city, was as bad as any she’d ever seen. She turned away and fled in the opposite direction, trying to get as far from the misery as possible. However, there was no escaping this world.
As she stumbled through the crowds, she happened upon the first clean, brightly lit place she’d seen so far. It looked like someone had parked a freshly washed spaceship in the middle of the city. Beams of white lights lined the perimeter of the building and somehow, the colored air wasn’t able to touch it. The shiny building called to her. Not able to look away, Elise wandered toward it like a fly lured toward a bright light. She didn’t seem to be the only one falling under this building’s trance. There was a circle of people standing around it as well, just staring at its glow. Once she got to the edge of the crowd, she was stopped by an armed guard ten meters from the building’s entrance.
“That’s far enough, Earthgrime,” a white-armored guard growled. He shoved her backward with one hand and, pointing his other hand at her, said, “Only corporate-class citizens allowed in this shopping district. The rest of you rabble stay where you belong.” At least that’s what she thought he said; she was only starting to get the hang of this dialect.
Elise looked over his shoulder and saw a steady stream of well-dressed people leaving and entering the building directly through flying transports so they wouldn’t have to mingle with the rabble. The guards around the building made sure that the people surrounding the glowing building did not get too close to the so-called corporate-class citizens.
Elise stayed and watched a while longer, staring almost wistfully as small groups of glamorous futuristic-looking shoppers entered and left. They looked like the people she had in mind when she thought of people from the future. Then finally, as if synchronously on cue, all the guards retreated into the building and then the entire thing took off.
“What in Gaia was that?” Elise asked.
“Damn corps still have to do business here on Earth, but there’s no city rich enough to take care of their needs. Mobile corp shopping facilities takes care of them until they can finish their business and get the hell off-planet.” The man standing next to her shook his head. “Way they keep us separated from them like animals…” He put his hands to his mouth and bellowed, “Hey, you all came from here too!”