[CANCELLED AND MOVED]
"Were you able to get out of bed this morning?" he asked, staring into the water. His voice was soothing, with the rasp of a fire.
"I..." My breathing spiked. "I don't remember. I think so. I'm here now, right?"
"But did you ha...
The Crystal Memoria Mall broke through the now orange sky, with all of the windows glowing with light. At first glance, I thought it was bustling with people. But the building sat in a black, rubber lot—like what running tracks are made of—with only a few lights on the horizon.
The MorteVista hummed behind us, and I noticed a figure in one of the windows.
They knocked on the glass until the colored patterns faded to clear. It was that pink-haired girl again, giving me a thumbs up and winking. I waved and hoped she could see my smile.
The train hissed, picking up speed and zooming off. No cars, no people, and barely any light besides the illuminating building.
"So... where is it?" Jamie asked.
"It's here," Cynaline said. "Somewhere. If the train brought us, then it must be right. It conducts itself. It says this place is open on the Web, so I guess we can just walk in."
⚝⚝⚝
As we stepped through the automatic doors, I felt a jolt of electricity in my ear.
"What was that!" I jumped.
I took the translator earbud out of my ear and thumbed it around in my hand. Nothing seemed to be wrong with it. Dorothy and Jamie also rubbed their ears to massage the pain.
Matchidok gaisin, Cynaline said. Tem, comoi remoff?
"Uh oh." Dorothy rubbed her hands together.
I put the translator back in.
"I think we should set up the teleporters now." Cynaline continued. "If we get lost, we can all teleport back to the same place."
"Why would we get lost?" Dori asked. "Aren't we sticking together?"
"Just in case. Maybe if we split up, we'll find the hotel faster."
Cynaline pulled off his bookbag and found the teleporters. They looked like rounded, black smartphones, with a scroll ball at the bottom and a small light bulb at the top. A map of blue lines appeared on the screen, with a giant dot in the center to pinpoint our location.
Cynaline showed us that we could send coordinates to each other's devices, and helped us name them so we knew who was who. I didn't expect the contact list to look so old.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
My eyes stung as I looked out at the white tiles and giant white lights. Despite that, we were all alone. The escalators still ran, and the stores were all open. A giant fountain spouted in the middle of the giant atrium.
Stairs and balconies stacked all the way up the mile-high, glass ceiling.
"Keep your devices close," Cynaline suggested. "We'll all meet in the lobby, later. I'll send the coordinates."
⚝⚝⚝
I turned into another branch of the mall. The white light faded behind me as I walked through the empty department stores. Department stores that were fully open, lights on and music playing.
