(GQ #10) Earth to Mia

3. Life in the Cracks

Mia watched the sky darken to a surreal shade of grey from the back seat of Naila's car. She'd seen this on TV, but never paid attention to how the surroundings dulled in color, how life drained from them.

"It wasn't supposed to rain today..." lamented the driver.

"Mother Nature must've made her own plans." Roxie remarked solemnly. She watched flags rustle in the wind. "California doesn't get tornadoes, does it?"

"Not any strong ones."

"Lucky~ Tornadoes are the worst." What an eerily straightforward way for her to put it.

"They sound like it. I hope the weather clears up soon. There's a lake close to where your crew is staying, behind all the trees." Naila smiled to herself. "Skipping rocks there helps me destress."

Roxie looked into the back seat, her eyes filled with the same excitement as Mia's heart. "Mia, did you hear that? The wonders of nature are just beyond our reach! You can feast upon it with your very eyes!"

"I'd love to!"

"Then it's decided!" She turned back around, folding her arms. "We're going to the lake!"

Naila nearly asked something, but instead pulled over to the sidewalk and braked the car. "I just realized you'll be closer to the barracks if I let you off here. Just go straight down that street," She pointed at the corner they just passed, "make a right at McBeefy's, and then go straight until you see a bunch of trees. That's when you'll know you're there."

"Thank you for the ride." Mia struggled not to step on Naila's backpack or her medical books as she exited the car.

Roxie simply hopped out. "And thank you for your knowledge of the lake!"

"No problem. Stay dry!"

"You too!" Only after the fact did Mia realize what a fool she sounded like. Naila had a car. The freckled ranger didn't have enough time to fix her mistake before she drove off.

"Onward!" Roxie led the way, denying Mia the chance to dwell on it.

Mia caught up to her as she rounded the corner. To their left, a metal fence separated them from a field with a running track. How would it have felt to run with the wind at her back? "Does it feel nicer, running laps on Earth?"

Roxie tilted her head side to side as she walked. "That's not as simple a question as you may think." She wagged a finger. "We are always at the mercy of the weather here, my dear Wattson. Once you've experienced a training session in the blistering heat of a summer afternoon, you'll know the sun's full wrath. But don't be fooled by winter. She's just as harsh a mistress, her cold winds sending daggers into your lungs with every breath...!"

"Oh. What about weather like this?"

"This is fine!" She answered cheerily.

Darkened windows across the street reflected cars that sped by much faster than the 30-mph-limit. Mia saw her own reflection, and Roxie's, alone on the sidewalk, so quiet compared to Lunaria.

She held her hands out. "It's so empty."

"No one walks in America!" Roxie explained.

"But," Mia thumbed behind her, "so many people were walking around in that city we came from."

"That's because it's a city. Us country folk have to fend for ourselves!" The shorter redhead stabbed a finger into her own chest. "Driver's licenses are a necessity in the rural wilderness."

"Don't you have buses?"

"No. It's drive or die!"

Mia smiled, then grimaced when her heel collided with something unexpectedly squishy. Her foot sprang up, revealing a tomato slice absolutely covered in pepper. Moving pepper. "...Are those ants?"