They took the elevator to the ground floor. She briefly replied to Chase's text. Peter, wearing a black cargo jacket, said something about not managing to park on the roof, to which she nodded and pretended to understand.
As soon as they were in the open air, she drew in a mixture of Indian and Chinese food in the chilly air. She silently thanked Peter for her doppelgänger's leather coat keeping her warm.
It was going to rain once more, she gathered from the looming clouds not far off the ground, behind which the hologram-filled buildings stretched and disappeared.
Through the haze, shadows of hover-cars rushing left and right explained the zooming sound in the air. There was no sign of the sun, even though it was noon; at first glance, she would've thought it was midnight.
The wet road reflected the neon lights of the big Japanese characters on nearby buildings. Older car models, bikes, and what looked like buses moved slowly in the streets.
She followed Peter as he made his way through the crowd of people of all extravagant fashion senses and ethnicities.
As she squinted around the misty scene, over the sidewalk traffic and the white smoke that escaped the conduits in strident noises, the thought of her real world's streets became relaxing.
The gull-wing doors of an electric blue hover-car slid open as Peter approached it. They got in, the new car smell intoxicated her. A few buttons beeped under Peter's touch before the car radio turned on with electronic rock music. She held on to her seat when the car lifted off the ground, leaving a trail of white smoke behind it.
They soared past the first layer of fog, slowly accelerating and reaching the skyway, where more clouds awaited.
"What's with the fog?" Joyce asked, gazing out the window.
Peter smacked his lips. "We had severe climate issues after the war. Winters had disappeared, there were longer droughts, melting glaciers, entire forests burning. Something had to be done, so one side of the higher powers started this Mars colonization project, basically giving a gigantic middle finger to our planet. The other side invested in this chemical cloud system, cooling the atmosphere and providing artificial rain and snow.
"When one side noticed it would take longer to colonize Mars than for the planet to die, it joined forces with the other on the SimCloud project. And hey, big props to them. They did it, they saved the planet. Side effects? We haven't really seen the sun, or the sky, for that matter, in about a decade. They said it was a temporary solution, but they never told us when the clouds would dissipate. I guess they meant temporary as in 'until we effectively colonize Mars and everyone can get the hell out of this rotting planet'."
Joyce shivered, her eyes looking for the sky. "I mean, the sky is still there, above those clouds, isn't it?"
He nodded. "It sure is. But it's illegal to fly over the clouds. Someone leaked pictures, once, and indeed, there is a blue sky out there. Some people started fantasizing about it, some said the higher powers all live above the clouds, while we all rot in this clutter of a city. It's as if people have forgotten the sky was always up there, before the war, and it was always beautiful, whatever its color. Maybe they never noticed, until it was gone."
"Wait, before the war?" she asked.
"Yeah, World War III. The longest five days we've ever had to endure," he said.
Her head flinched back. "Five days?"
"Five days," he repeated, taking a turn to the right. In the distance, she saw a gigantic wall with a string of wind turbines on top of it. "It started after an attempted terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, which, if you don't know, is two identical towers—"
YOU ARE READING
Cloud Chasers
Romance[EDITORS' PICK] Joyce Blackbird is a bored aspiring writer who just entered her adult years. The world around her frustrates her and disrupts her inspiration to write. Chase Journey, musician, is the first person she's interested in. Through the cl...
