“Shall we go?”Įveryone agreed it was time to end the party, and with Rhea placated, the reunion trickled back into the shuttle for the trip home. The child wailed and screamed, but he was a small creature, and Agunye tucked him under an armpit with a quick smile. He’d circled around and snuck up from behind. He scuttled back from her, and right into Agunye’s arms. The child snatched it from her, shredding the plastic wrapping as he ripped into it with jagged teeth. She held out a candy bar in her right hand. He was so covered in muck that he almost blended into the night. “Hey there,” she said softly to the scared child. Rhea clambered her way over rusted-out heaps and winced when something jabbed through her boots into her skin. “It’s a hell they chose to make,” Garrison said. “Don’t think you’re doing it any favors.” They love living in places like this,” Susi said. “All the termites down here can survive just fine without our help. Partying in an exotic location would make an incredible story. They’d flown down into the heart of the dump for their mini-reunion. “We can’t leave the child here in the trash!” Rhea protested. It shattered against something invisible out there. While it was fun to see what the old world was like-” Agunye threw the last bottle of Islay off into the dark. Everywhere I step there’s old world crap.” “We just spent three days,” Garrison said. “Does he live here?” Susi asked, disgusted. “Oh my,” London said, clambering up behind Rhea. His wide, dark eyes stared fearfully at her as he tried to hide behind a cracked porcelain tub. It was a little boy, streaked in grease and mud, ribs visible as the drone lights played over him. Rhea clambered one of the unsteady trash hills they’d parked the tents between. Rhea shielded her eyes and tried to follow along as the drones ducked and weaved around the compacted hills of old Earth debris. Trash rattled and slid down the pile as the intruder scuttled away from the stunningly bright light. “Was using them for dance lights,” London muttered. The night lit up, and two drones dropped out of the air. She pointed in the direction Rhea indicated and snapped her fingers. “Something’s over there,” Rhea whispered to Susi. Rhea listened to the bickering with half an ear as the orange glow of the fire faded away, as she’d been sure she had seen something skitter past the shadows on the edge of the camp. The last bottle of Islay anyone will ever have,” Agunye said, and snatched it from Garrison. “That’s the last bottle,” Agunye said, anger suddenly as banked as the tent fire. His heavy boots crunched in the ground, knocking styrofoam chunks into the air. “Ten years!” Garrison shouted, clutching the almost empty bottle triumphantly. It isn’t something he can do back upstairs.” Susi stumbled out of her own tent with a fire extinguisher.Įveryone coughed and spat as she blew the fire out in a cloud of chemical powder. There’d been scrambling and shouting among the five old friends as they tumbled out into the fetid, methane-rich air outside. “Damn it, Garrison!” Agunye shouted as personal air quality alarms blared. Garrison, passed out from drinking the better part of a bottle of hundred-year-old Islay Scotch, had dropped a cigar onto the edge of the canvas tent and set it all on fire. Rhea found the feral child on the edge of the garbage park on the last day of the group’s vacation.
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