Daydream

Chapter 1

"You're going to kill yourself, Heidi," Sammy shouted thirty meters below, shielding her face from the occasional honky nut that flew from the tree above.

"Am not, I just really want to see what the Reppo's are doing!" Heidi shouted back, "Tommy said they were burning off land a few miles south of the river, and that's important."

"Is not, we never go there."

"It's important to know where these dropouts are trampling to. I am not planning to get on their register of 'Unknown and Potentially Dangerous' anytime soon."

"Climbing up a tree just proves you're a dropout in your own right."

"Does not, it proves I'm a highly adapted monkey while you're still stuck on the ground."

"Monkeys live in trees."

"You ever seen one?"

"Doesn't matter, monkeys live in trees. At least tell me you can see what they're up to?"

"Yeah, I'll come down now."

Heidi, who had been sitting at the top of the tree for the last five minutes watching for movement in the plains below, began a graceful tumble to the ground, using legs, arms, hands and teeth (in no particular order) to make her way to Sammy, whom was now re-braiding her sandy hair while sunning herself on a rock.

"Okay, so there is movement around the river. Funnily enough, Tommy was right. But, I can't tell how many- definitely more than fifteen people, which means it's almost certainly the Reppo-"

"Did you say you can't tell? But Heidi, that's you're thing! You've never not been able to sense people- what's happened now?" Sammy cut across sharply, leaning in intently.

"Well... I think someone's shielding them. I'm not sure, so I didn't poke- the person shielding them is strong, too, because I couldn't sense their hotspot at all."

"Could they sense you?"

"No- I keep my mind block up really high and masked the direction we're in. But we should still go."

"Yeah, and better tell Maggie and Lara. The can pass it on to the mob as they do the rounds."

Sammy and Heidi, one girl usual and the other abnormal, began the steep ascend to the top of the peaks where many of the outliers lived; a constantly cold place where the nuclear winter had caused snow to fall in places that hadn't seen snow in twenty thousand years. Food was traded for fire and news; news of friends and family, of the Reppo's who had rebuild themselves in the waste of a country which had, fortunately, been saved from the utter destruction of the bomb. News of winter and other Reppo lands were particularly sought after, indicating the chances of a let-up of the harsh winters, and the types of abilities those abnormal were being discovered to do.

Heidi was tiny, a 'little porcelain doll' with dark curly hair and deep blue eyes offset by almost white skin. A striking look where normality was prized as a defence, the ability to be faceless to those with cameras and video. A natural ability to sense the whereabouts and feelings of others, and total and utter self-preservation- she knew when she was being tracked and could conceal herself and others. Sammy, on the other hand, didn't possess anything supernatural; about a head taller than Heidi, she was more cautious person whom blended in so well with other outliers that people whom had hacked Reppo databases had sworn that she had never been recognised, despite coming from a Reppo-born family.

The sun had nearly risen to its highest peak when Heidi sensed Maggie and Lara. The two women turned at the owl hoot Sammy issued, and waved when they recognised the girls as they rounded onto the peak. It was the second highest in the mountain chain, and offered views to the sea toward the west, the rolling grass plains to the east and river systems both north and south.