Barrier

Chapter 4: Emmy

The next day passed in a  blur of movement. The airstreams were strangely quiet so we were able to travel much faster than expected, and  there was time to stop at midday for a lunch break.

Charlotte had been in charge of arranging food, so I found myself with a flask of tasteless deionised water in one hand and a plastic container with crackers, a salad and a collection of various nuts in separate compartments in the other. It was very hard to refrain from rolling my eyes.

We sat beside each other on a narrow strip of grass alongside the track. I almost didn’t say it, but then I couldn’t help myself. ‘Charlotte?’

‘Mhmm?’ she said, mouth full of food.

‘Do you really think this is appropriate food for a journey?’

She nodded, words still slightly muffled. ‘Yeah, of course. It’ll only be a few days anyway.’

‘Wait, what? How can you say a few days? We haven’t decided what we’re doing after this stop yet. We’re not coming back and leaving again, I wouldn’t do that to Noah.’

‘I didn’t say we’d be gone a few days, I said we’d be travelling a few days.’

‘Alright. But I meant what I said about Noah.’

Charlotte fingered the fibreglass disc in her pocket. ‘Noah will be fine, he’s all you ever talk about. You don’t see me going on about my parents all the time, do you?  Besides, I don’t decide what’s happening next. This thing does.’

‘I still wish you’d let me see that.’

‘Not a chance, Emmy. I have a feeling that once we get there you won’t leave lightly anyway.’

‘When are you going to tell me why you’re being so secretive about this? You never keep secrets! You look like you do, but we both know you’re the loud one here.’

‘I’m not. Let’s not fight, it’s time to go again.’ Charlotte quickly collected her belongings and straddled the Magno, waiting impatiently until I followed suit.

Her screen flickered with green light, warning that the optimum time to leave was now if we wanted to avoid air traffic. We were cutting away from the barrier now, travelling along the path above an established road, so we put our Magnos into cruise and relaxed, still enjoying mostly clear skies. Charlotte connected hers to the mainframe so that it would autodirect the bikes. I couldn’t without a full license, so I just pointed my Magno to follow hers, so that it was indirectly linked to the mainframe but wouldn’t show up on the central monitors.

I took the time given to me by the Cruise Control to check the weather forecasted for tonight, something that was always important in a place with weather as temperamental as this. One quick glance told me all I needed to know - rain, and lots of it. As the data was displayed on my screen, I could feel the coating of my bike shifting slightly under me, becoming more resistant to moisture.

We were moving away from the Barrier at a steady speed, but I kicked the Magno into high gear in hopes of escaping the brunt of the downpour. My transport was fully waterproof in its Lotus form and Charlotte’s had water-repelling beads, but she didn’t seem to fancy stopping early, as she shouted over in no uncertain terms.

‘Emmy! Hurry up!’

‘Calm down, you have the new HeatClouds. You’ll be fine!’

‘It’s not getting wet I care about!’ She gave up shouting to me and messaged me the rest of the sentence. It popped up on my screen in characteristic pink. ‘We have to get to the buildings over there before we stop for today.’ She pointed again, a little less vaguely this time.

‘You’ll be soaked if you don’t find shelter, I mean it!’ But I leaned further over the Magno, until my face was almost touching the screen. Approximately an hour until the rain reached our destination, and we could beat it there. Just about.

To Charlotte’s intense relief, and my mystification - we did. We brought the Magnos down to  shuddering stop behind a row of buildings, sheltered by a veritable wood of trees. Charlotte dragged hers into an abandoned shed nearby, but I just folded mine up and climbed inside.

I could sense something in the air - we were near.