The Rift

Chapter Four

Ava walked out of her room yawning.

"Hurry up!" Shouted her mom from the kitchen. "It's 6:55! You need to leave in five minutes. Grab a bar for breakfast, and get in the car."

Ava groaned and walked to the cupboard. She hated the bars. The people who had invented them had been able to create a bar that could fill you up and give you all the energy of a full meal, but they had not been smart enough to make it taste good. She pulled one out of the box and opened it. It tasted like some nasty protein powder with a bunch of chemicals and vitamins that made it healthy, and some weird grainy flavor she couldn't place. There was not even an attempt to flavor it. She washed it down with a drink of water and yawned again.

"Get your stuff you have to go," shouted Ava's mom.

"Can I have the key?"

"It's on the counter"

The key was not really a key it was a small circular disk about the size and shape of a quarter. It omitted a signal that only the specific car it was made for recognised. Ava grabbed the key, walked to her room and shouldered her backpack. She left her room and saw her mom standing there with tears in her eyes.

Ava went over and hugged her.

"It will be ok," Ava said.

"I know," said her mom. "You're resourceful and smart. You'll be safe. It's justs hard to watch you leave.

"I'll be back mom. I promise"

"Then go, it's time.

Ava walked to the door. She felt a lump in her throat. It was hard to leave and make her mom so sad. She opened the door and looked back. Her mom forced a smile and nodded for her to leave. Ava turned and walked to the car. As she approached, the car sensed the key and beeped. The doors opened and she heard the engine start up. Ava hopped into the front seat. A pleasant but annoying female voice said over the speakers, "Where would you like to go?"

"New York City, League base three." All the doors closed and and the car pulled out of the driveway. The inside of the car was comfortable. In the Front were two mechanical gel seats. Facing out the front window. In the middle were two small couches facing each other on either side of a small table. On the table was a holographic projector that could be set to show 2D images for watching TV or movies, or It could be set to 3D for things like maps, games and many other things you might want. It was touch sensitive,so the holographic projection could be manipulated by hand. Built onto the underside of the table was a computer which used the touch sensitive holographic projector as a monitor. In the back of the car was a trunk for anything big you needed to bring.

Ava looked out the window at the passing city. All of the tall buildings and busy streets. She looked at the dashboard in front of her. She had heard that in the west people had to drive their own cars. They did not even have the technology to have the cars drive themselves. She had heard it was because they did not have enough power to have all the necessary electronics in the road. There solar panels and wind turbines and whatever else they used were not enough to power anything other than the very basics, lights cars houses etc. Nothing nice and fancy. In the east the cars were also electric. In the roads were wires and cables that transmitted information to the cars on the road. It told them where other cars were, how fast it could go on that part of the road, how to get to their destination and anything else the cars needed. There were also power cables attached in the road that wirelessly charged the cars while they were driving.

Ava had also heard that in the west, because people drove their own cars, accidents were common enough people had to wear restraints called seat belts to reduce the risk of dying in a crash. In the east all the cars knew where every other car was, so there were barely any crashes. Cars only crashed if there was a very serious malfunction. There were only about twenty wrecks a year in the entire eastern US.