Shadow of the Transition

Chapter 5

I woke up alone, covered by my sweater that was carefully tucked in. Rick was not there. That is, he was not in the room.

I sat down on the crumpled jacket and looked around. I saw Rick's boots near the opening; his camouflage pants lay on top of them, neatly folded. Did it mean he had swum away for reconnaissance? Ok, while I was alone, I needed to visit the toilet ...

Time passed, the room became lighter, but the guy still didn't return. I approached the opening and turned over his clothes – his t-shirt wasn't there. Two wet socks were found in one shoe, and folded underpants in the other. So he had taken his shirt to scare the rats off, right?

At the memory of the rats, my mood was dramatically spoiled. Not that I was so much afraid of them, but I just thought: what would happen if something went wrong and Rick didn't return? What should I do then? He hadn't talked about it the day before, and neither had he warned me that he would leave, so I had not the slightest idea what to do. All I could do was wait; wait and think. I wondered how long had he spent here alone, and what had he done. Ashan and Peter hadn't told me when the group had disappeared, and I hadn't asked either. Rick Jansen must have been trying all this time to find a way out of here, to the rest of his group, but he couldn't find it, and he kept returning to this empty place over and over again... I shuddered.

A soft splash and a loud exhalation interrupted my thoughts. Water splashed out of the opening, and the naked guy slowly crawled out and stood on all fours as the water flowed down off him. I turned away to give him time to get dressed, and pretended to rummage through the pile of fish. After a long time, I heard the creaking of his boots over the concrete chips. Rick sat down next to me, but he was obviously too exhausted to talk and kept silent. I saw a gray ceramlite chain with a badge around his neck, with his name, numbers and other marks stamped on it, like all soldiers have. I shook the jacket and covered his thin goose-skinned back.

"Thank you, lady," he smiled with a forced smile, and started tearing the fish carcass.

I showed him again, slowly, how to do it the right way, and he nodded gratefully. Nevertheless, the fold between his eyebrows didn't disappear, which made me realize that the things were not very good. After he had finished eating, put the fish aside and washed it down with the water from the second bottle, I took off the black ceramlite bracelet that Peter had put on my wrist before leaving, and gave it to him. Rick was wearing exactly the same one. It looked like an old digital watch from pre-disaster times.

"Ah, Evelyn's tracker!" the guy brightened up and pressed the buttons on it for some time. "So that's what it was ... Sorry, lady, yesterday, when the signal appeared, I'd completely lost my head and dived right as I had been, dressed. That's why I had such an unpresentable appearance afterwards. Usually I take off my clothes when I go on reconnaissance..."

While he was chatting I thought, what could happen if he had lingered to take off his clothes the day before. My second thought was: wow, "unpresentable appearance "! This guy had a rather big vocabulary, as for our times!

***

"Lady? So Evelyn made his way home, didn't he? To the TransitionCenter, I mean? Is he alright? Actually, in this case they would have sent him back here..."

Rick frowned and placed the bracelet next to him on the concrete. And then, word after word, he told the story of this expedition.

Big Bob, or the Oracle, as they called the world's largest unified computer, signaled a breach in which four trackers of civilian signal bracelets disappeared. Moreover, there were two girls among these four.

"You see, lady, these kids... they were playing theTransition Police. They fled the Village and went into abandoned houses where there were no marked safe zones. Of course these 'investigators' fell out. One might say, to hell with them, but they are teenagers, born after the Disaster, and it's a pity, not to mention that there are two girls. Do you know, lady, that only those who were deep in the Web at the moment of the Disaster survived? These were businessmen engaged in negotiations, gamers, those who stuck in social networks; mostly young men, in a word. It happened on a working day, in the morning, during school hours; if it were in the evening, much more people could have been left... Well, among those who remained there were only a few women and a bit more girls – there was a ratio of forty of fifty men to one woman, approximately. The Professor said that by the time these little girls reach their reproductive age... In short, humanity's prospects may not be completely hopeless, but they're not brilliant either. The General put it more rudely, that we are... well, we're finished, but people are stubborn creatures and won't give up just like that, so we'll do what we can. The government has built Villages where our women live like queens, behind a safe perimeter. Those who want to, of course, and who are healthy. And we, men, have turned into an army of builders and fighters around our ladies, so that our society now looks like a society of ants or bees."

Rick looked at me with an embarrassed smile.

"Actually, I heard there were excesses at the very beginning, in the first months after the Disaster. But then General Ashan came to power and shot all of those who... er... He said that since people were going to die anyway, he would take care that they died with dignity, observing the law and with no troglodyte abominations. And he kept his word! Since that time, and I was twelve then, I've stayed with him and the Professor, and I've been working in the Transition Police from its first day. Oh, and what Village are you from, lady?"

I didn't answer, recalling those very first months and those "excesses", when I used to hide in empty houses like a rat or a feral cat, looking for food there. I thought, "So this is who's stopped those outrages! It means my kidnappers and bosses are none others than our leaders, aren't they? General Ashan and Professor Peter? Wow, what meetings do not happen in life!" But I seemed to have digressed from what Rick was telling.

"...pretty, with blond hair. When our group entered this reality, instability occurred and the girl began to be pulled into the Transition. Sergeant Evelyn was the first to notice her, he grabbed her, and I grabbed him. I thought I would manage to pull both of them back, I just had to make one step out of the zone of instability..." Rick waved his hand and lowered his head. "The Transition drugged all three of us and threw us out under water. It was so unexpected that I unclasped my hands, and Evelyn and the girl were dragged further. By the time I figured out where the top is and where the bottom is, and swam out, they were gone, there were only rats around. And I couldn't get back to the group. I feel they're not far away, in this building, but..." he looked at me and lowered his head again. "So... I got stuck here. It's the fourth day now. And our people there have no food too, and they can't return without the trackers. And the kids, those adventurers, are still with them..."

Rick slammed his fist on the concrete and turned away. What I didn't like most of all was that the deceased Evelyn's bracelet was still lying on the floor and the guy didn't hurry to do anything with it.