From No Tomorrow

Arrival in the Future

A stiff, warm wind blew past Elzbieta, then reversed. A sudden chill washed over her, and she hugged herself. Opening her eyes, she saw a ragged, uneven crater a foot deep surrounding her legs, scattered with sandy soil and shards of grass blades. Stepping out of it, her feet hit hard asphalt.

Elzbieta looked around. The sky above was clear, but, unusually, cloudless. On either side of the road was a chain link fence, which guarded the farmlands and sectioned them off. Unnaturally late in the year, the crops within grew tall and strong, but bore a sickly pallor.

Behind her, Elzbieta saw the asphalt road cross with the railroad tracks, of which there were now two sets. Each rail was at least twice the size it had been when she last saw them, and spaced twice as far apart.

All was silent. With a sigh, Elzbieta realized how easily she had gotten used to having László around to speak to.

Unsure of what to do, Elzbieta began despondently down the road, in the direction the train had been moving in before. No sooner than she had drawn out her journal, however, she heard a low, gravelly roaring sound behind her. Looking back, she saw what she eventually construed to be a low, angular and sleek car, driving towards her at a speed she had never seen a land vehicle achieve. Once she got a good look at the machine, she turned and kept walking, expecting the vehicle to pass her.

Instead, just as the sound was nearest, tires screeched angrily as the car slid roughly to a stop behind her.

"Hey you!" screamed a voice from inside the car. "Get off the road! Do you want to get run over?!"

Looking back, Elzbieta stepped onto the gravel shoulder, then watched as the car started back up and hurried past her.

"I guess people don't walk on roads anymore," Elzbieta calmly noted, continuing.

For the next few minutes, Elzbieta's mind was, for the first time in days, clear. On any other day, Elzbieta would have found this aggravating, but, here, she only wished she could stay that way, even if this sudden serenity only stemmed from directionlessness. On the spot, Elzbieta decided that there were advantages to being completely lost.

Eventually, Elzbieta heard another engine noise behind her. Staying well out of the vehicle's way, she extended her hand to the road with her index finger extended, indicating that she wished to hitchhike.

Gently, the car slowed to a stop, and a young man with a sour face and a short, trimmed beard stepped out.

"Do you need a ride?" he asked, in a voice equal parts bored and sullen.

"Yes, please," Elzbieta simply replied. "Just to the nearest town. I'm lost."

"Alright, get in," the man invited.

"Thank you, sir."

Without dawdling, Elzbieta opened the rear door and slid herself in, sitting down in the remarkably comfortable seat.

"Don't forget your seatbelt," the man glumly reminded.

"Right," acknowledged Elzbieta, pretending that she had remembered.

Once buckled in, Elzbieta braced herself and pretended that she was flying as the car began to accelerate, pushing her back into the seat. She could not help but smile at the familiar feeling of speed, which not even the train had managed match.

As the car sped across the smooth paved road, Elzbieta saw mostly grim brick farmhouses and decrepit old wooden shacks, only to gasp when she saw something completely new to her.

Rumbling through one of the fields on a pair of long, thin treads was a huge derrick, at least two stories tall. Painted dark green with white stripes, the machine bristled with blinking warning lights which Elzbieta could only assume were incandescent. While a cloud of neon green-colored mist behind the vehicle hinted as to its function, Elzbieta knew that it had to be more than simply a chemical sprayer, or a plane would be performing its task. She resisted the temptation to point this machine out to her driver, knowing that it would seem mundane to a temporal native.