The Future isn't Bright

Twenty-Five

    Ulysses came into our room about half an hour later. He held a clipboard under his arm bearing a list with available time slots for City travels.

"Just sign your name along with the time, and you're set to go! The usual limit is three hours at a time, but considering your situation, I'll let you abide with four. Be back by seven o'clock."

Chloe and I both thanked Ulysses what seemed like a million times. Chloe signed her name in neat, straight print. She handed me the pen and clipboard. When I placed the pen in my left hand, a familiar ache immersed from my knuckles. I bit my lip to submerge the pain. When I finished signing, Georgie walked through the door to the bathroom and her face lit up when she saw the clipboard.

            "Do you girls mind if I join you?" she asked sincerely. I looked to Chloe.

         "No, not at all!" I told her. I really enjoyed her company. Although I didn't know her very long, she seemed genuinely nice. I passed Georgie the clipboard and watched her scribble her name. Her last name was Pennington.

Before I knew it, we gathered our things and found ourselves in a familiar car, and it looked the same as when I was transported here.

         "Hey, girly!" Mac said as she opened the door to the limo and sat down next to me.

         "Hey, Mac!" I greeted her.

         "Mac!" Georgie said with surprise, "You're coming? Are any other trainers coming too?"

       Mac didn't get to answer the question because the door to the Compound flew open, while Oslo, Lance, and my brother fell to the ground. They gathered themselves ungracefully and rushed to the limo. Lance yanked open the door, grinning like a puppy, and scrambled inside while the others followed his lead.

         "Ethan, I thought only you were coming?" I asked as his light head emerged through the doorway.

           "Well..." he started as he sat down to the left of me, causing Georgie to scoot over, "As soon as Ulysses came into our room with the clipboard, Oslo wanted to go, and Lance happened to be in the room, so we all kind of signed up."

           "Come on, Donna, don't act like you're not excited to see us!" Lance teased.

         "She might be, but she's just starstruck because I'm here." Mac batted her lashes at Lance. And we all laughed. Mac explained to Chloe that Jennie couldn't make it because she had Trainer training, which didn’t sound like a real thing.

Oslo in the same car made me slightly uncomfortable. I couldn't describe it. He sat quietly wedged between Georgie and Lance. He suddenly turned his eyes on my and I diverted my gaze to the hem of my shirt and started fiddling around with it.

         "Wait a sec," Lance broke the silence, "Who's driving?"

         "I'll do it," Mac said as she stood up as much as she could in the short limo and began waddling out.

         "Wait, you're allowed to drive?" Chloe took the words from my mouth. We only had male drivers in Femme. Females were proven to cause more accidents.

         "Well, I'm nineteen, and this isn't Femme, so yes!" she smiled and closed the door. Through the tinted windows, I saw her walk around the front of the vehicle and sit down in the driver's seat. There was a window dividing the driver's and passenger's seats from the wrap-around couch in the back. I didn't realize its existence until Mac slid it open, asking us if we were ready to go. We all hollered joyfully in response. Mac started the car and took off down the road. Timmy reached through the window and popped his head through to surprise Mac, making the car swerve a bit to the side of the road and righting itself, but not before everyone in the back screamed. She operated the limo so smoothly, it reminded me of Lucas. Before I could envision a flashback in the back of my head and stare out the window dramatically, the City came into view.