Imperfection

Imperfection Chapter 5

We've arrived. 

Modesty stands and walks over to the window. Her face is suddenly twisted with confusion. "There's nothing here. Just dead grass and dirt,"

Truth skips over to here. "She's right. This place is completely deserted!"

I hear voices from outside our cabin. Loud, authoritative voices. "Shhh!" I warn. "Someone's coming,"

Modesty and Truth are silent. Walker stares at nothing. I lie on the cold, hard ground, my back and shoulders aching. 

The door slides open revealing a man dressed in Dux Ducis attire: a silver spandex suit with a long black cotton strip down through the middle reading “Beta: Life 2.0”. He's got the physique of a Lead: eyes the color of shimmering aluminum and hair the color of roasted chestnuts.

"Get up," he snarls. "We're here,"

Walker is the first to stand up. He's a whole lot taller than I thought he was. He must be about 2 heads taller than me. 

Modesty gets to her feet, gracefully and takes a series of silent steps to the door. 

I try to stand up next. My body is concrete, heavy and immobile. I straighten my back and my legs nearly puddle beneath me. I force my legs to move forward, but it's like lugging two loaded cargo trains on my feet. Eventually I am able to walk fairly normally. Just as I am about to reach the door, I turn back to look at Truth who is still leaning up against the window, arms crossed. 

"Are you coming?" I ask, stupidly. It's not like she could have said no.

She uncrosses her arms and sighs. "Yeah," She doesn't move from the window.

Shrugging to myself, I continue walking without her. 

A different Dux Ducis yells at us from outside the train to hurry up.

I'm at the exit of the train. I gaze out to the vast empty desert in front of me.

The sun has settled under the covers of the earth for hours now and the only light that allows us to see is the dim moonlight. This moonlight isn't the same as "moon" light in Beta. Its dimmer, more relaxed, less computerized. The moonlight in Beta was a blinding, artificial light.

This moonlight illuminates the scene, casting dark shadows of large dead trees upon the red dirt. Boulders sit, uselessly, eroding away in the dusty wind. The ground is cracked and dry, as if it hadn't seen a single drop of water in centuries. Modesty and Walker stand together with a female Dux Ducis in front of some kind of ancient vehicle. Modesty and Walker look sickly and nervous, or maybe that's just the moonlight reflecting upon their faces. The Dux Ducis signals for me to move over to them. I follow her instructions, as I was taught to do in Beta. 

Nobody in our group speaks. There is nothing to be said. 

We stand for a while until the first Dux Ducis comes up to the second and says, "A few of these scumbags tried to get away in the last car. Idiotic, right?"

No one is Beta used the word "scumbag." Cursing and insulting others is forbidden.

The female Dux Ducis laughs. "Where's there to go? There's literally nothing out here but dirt. They'd have died in hours!" 

Moments later, a third Dux Ducis comes out herding a small group of trembling kids. In that group stands Truth, her eyes downcast and her shoulders hunched. 

"That's all of them," the third Dux Ducis states, running a hand through his sand-colored hair. "Let's go. We need to get to base,"

Nodding, the first Dux Ducis begins to yell at us. "Get in the truck," His voice is stern and oozing with hatred. Walker and Modesty lead the group onto the back of the vehicle while the Dux Ducis sit in the enclosed area in the front. There are no seats here in the back. The space is tight and dusty. It's made of some sort of cheap metal I've never seen before. Whatever kind of metal it is, it's heavily rusted and the paint is peeling straight off of it. 

There are about 15 of us all squeezed into the back. People sit on top of people just to keep from falling off the vehicle. A boy-or maybe a girl? - sits with his rear on my knee and I don't push him away because I know he doesn't have a choice. 

The Dux Duxi start the vehicle and it gives off a loud, vicious hum. A cloud of dark smoke that is almost invisible in this dark night comes from a pipe at the back of it. As the vehicle begins to move, crimson dust is thrown off the ground and takes flight, entering our eyes.

The vehicle is faster than I thought it would be. It zooms over dry, cracked mud mounds so fast I have to hold on to the side of it to keep from flying off it. One poor girl is thrown off the vehicle and lands painfully on her shoulder with a horrifically loud crack. She lies on my ground, trembling, her blonde hair drawn over her face. I realize that the mass of blonde curls belong to Truth.

She slowly manages to hoist herself up into sitting position. Her shoulder is raw and bloody, the skin torn to pieces. It’s clear she won’t be able to use it for quite some time, if she even lives that long.  She reaches out for us with her good arm, but we're much too far away from her. The thick red dust from that floats into the air creates a wall, separating her from us. The vehicle doesn't stop for her. It continues on as if nothing happened. She drops her hand and lies onto the ground, slowly, reluctantly, as if she has unwillingly accepted her destiny. The dust cloud is now too thick to see her limp, sickly body.

 She is just left to die

In the middle

Of 

Nowhere.