Rewritten

Chapter 11

The street fades around Daniel and Reva into a deep purple. Foggy strips of light dance around the hover-car, picking up pace until they are flying at an alarming rate. The light dissipates in a similar manner revealing a bright new floating glass world. The world below is in ruins, fallen buildings, torn up streets, filth. The sun is just beginning to set.

Daniel has reached the future. He beholds the new world, thoroughly examining every inch he could see from the sky. They glided towards the city, sweeping over the land below.

"You'll stay in the extraction compound for tonight, nothing will start until tomorrow." Reva doesn't take her eyes off the city.

Daniel folds his arms and leans back. "What do they call this advanced world?"

"It's still Earth, this city ahead is New Dallas. It's a little south of where you are from. It's part of the Link. The Link is part of what used to be North America, the whole western half. The Link is the glass cities in the skies above there, all linked."

"I see," Daniel moans.

The glass world, the Link, is right in front of them now. The streets are wide, the buildings are tall and thin and the roads are lit up, for it reached dark moments earlier.

The hovercraft flies over the tops of many buildings. On the streets, hovercrafts zip along and people roam the sidewalks.

Reva descends on a flat-topped, glass building. She shuts off the engines and lets the vehicle land on the surface firmly. "Come on, I don't have much time to get you to your room."

Reva drags Daniel out and takes him to a clear elevator on the very edge. From it, they could view the whole city as the lowered. The brilliant colours shine through buildings and streets. Advertisements for new devices glitter against the glass.

Daniel read some of them. "Coke Express, buy today and receive a free pass to New Seattle for Georgie and the Gang." "The new iPhone 20.0 released now with the best holographics." "Buy now, Hyundai Alpha, exclusive upgrades unique to our company!"

He couldn't understand any of it. The pictures for them, though, did impress upon him.

The elevator comes to a stop. The doors slide apart behind them. Reva grabs the collar of Daniel's shirt and tugs him along. The freshly painted walls and the patterned floor panels create a maze to Daniel. Reva strides through them with no trouble.

They pass by lots of closed doors and distorted glass walls but a room near the edge of the building seems to be the place they are headed. Once Reva opens the door, Daniel is met with a room with a tall ceiling and bunks. The bunks each reached a tower of three high and held together with a curved slab of metal.

Men and woman sit at a table in the middle of the room, all wearing clothes from separate eras. They look over at him with tired faces.

"Hey," "Sup man?" "Hello," They greet him solemnly.

"Evening," he replies.

"This is where you'll be staying for your extraction. Afterwards, we'll see." Reva pushes Daniel into the room and locks the door.