The Abyss of Time

Chapter Thirteen

     "Who's that?" said Zanele Miller in alarm.

     Lucy Miller gave a start at the tone of her mother's voice and stared in the direction she was looking. "It's just the gardener, mum," she said, brushing a lock of black hair out of her eyes. "I think it's Julian Pike. Mandy's son."

     Zanele nodded in relief, then waved to the twenty year old pushing a lawn mower along the strip of grass that lined the sides of Oxford Street. The lad waved back, then steered the device around the clump of daffodils that lay in his path. A few dozen metres behind him was the truck in which he was placing the grass clippings. When the distance between him and young Julian grew too great it trundled silently after him until it was close enough for him to empty the mower's grass box into it.

     "Sorry," said Zanele with an embarrassed smile. "I keep seeing cyborgs everywhere. I know I'm being silly. I know the cyborgs have gone..."

     "You're not being silly," said Greg Harker, one of the two young men accompanying the two women along the wide passageway. "There's a reason your husband asked us to accompany you. We don't know that all the cyborgs left."

     "Right," agreed Rolf Gaus, hefting his newly printed pulse plasma rifle. A weapon guaranteed to take down a cyborg with one shot. "Maybe they tricked us. Maybe the lander that left was empty and the cyborgs stayed aboard. Lull us into a false sense of security so they can abduct and convert people in secret."

     "Miller says he saw seven cyborgs get into the lander," said Zanele.

     "Maybe," said Lucy, "but we don't know that was all of them. You're right to be alert, and I'm grateful these fellows are happy to come with us to the supermarket."

     "No trouble at all," said Rolf, smiling at her.

     Lucy smiled back, but even though she was grateful for the company part of her wished there'd been someone else available. He was very clearly attracted to her, but she felt nothing for him in return. It wasn't as though he'd made an overt move towards her or anything. He'd always been a perfect gentleman, but it was there in the way he looked at her and spoke to her. He was always polite, which was nice, but he was a little too polite. Almost everything he said to her was complimentary, as if he were trying to gain her affection and approval. She'd had no choice but to allow him to come, though. Miller had insisted that two men accompany them to the supermarket and he had been one of the only two men who were available.

     She tried to take her mind off the annoyingly nice man by looking at the gardener again as they passed him by. "Why are they still cutting the grass anyway?" she muttered to herself. "I mean, if we're abandoning the ship in a few days, what's the point?"

     "Gives him something to do, I suppose," said Zanele as she pushed the trolley in which they'd be taking their shopping back to their apartment. "And maybe it lets him think everything's still normal." She was still eyeing him suspiciously as they passed him by, though, Lucy noticed. Probably wondering if he'd been caught and converted by cyborgs still aboard the ship. Maybe he was a zombie, waiting to take them off their guard so he could catch them and take them away to be converted in turn. The gardener paid them no attention, though, and continued to steer the mower, totally oblivious to the other people in the corridor with him.

     "Whose idea was it to have a supermarket anyway?" Zanele asked as they passed a hairdressers and a shoe shop, both of which were locked up and closed. "Why not just deliver groceries straight to our doors?"

     "They wanted to give the ship a sense of community," Lucy replied. "Not everyone goes to pubs and restaurants. They wanted to make it unavoidable for spouses and children to leave their homes and meet each other. We were originally going to be aboard this ship for years, after all. Some psychologist probably earned a fortune with the idea."