Do something useful
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“Pilot, where are we?” he finally asked.
“Near home beacon, two minutes.”
“Can we land?”
“Finding safe landing area.” Prince groaned at this.
“Yeah, so where the fuck are we?” asked Bork, fair enough.
“No swearing!” said Samantha.
“I’m free now, so I’ll swear if I want. Bollocks!”
“That’s not a swear word,” said one of the farmers from the back.
“This is a disaster,” said Prince, “I mean a real one,” he added. Samantha showed her latest Blink images, a tall tower of land, like a cupcake, rising from the earth, with a huge cloud of things spinning around the top. The scale showed one mile across, two high. Everyone gasped, except Prince who watched the mess below through a viewer.
“That was the prison,” she said, voice breaking. “All my stuff’s there. And what about the people?”
“It’s like a huge toilet brush,” said Bork. Samantha glared at him.
“Shut up, that’s not a brush, it’s a massive scar of death,” said Samantha. Everyone went quiet, thinking how lucky they were to have escaped, so far. The view from the windows and scanners showed a jumbled mess of earth, buildings, trees, and dots that must be people, like ants caught in the path of a plough.
“Look, there’s a flood, or maybe a new river, some barriers broke,” said Samantha. Water spread around the lower areas. Repair machines would soon fix these parts, turning water to active mud, slowly rebuilding the land. She zoomed the view. Some bigger land ships had started moving across the gray stretch, heading for dry spots. Smaller houses moved slowly on emergency floats, flashing alarm lights, forming loose lines on the rough water.
“Do we have to look at those miserable losers?” asked Prince, bringing the view back to nearby. “I know that building there. That’s mine. Pilot, go there, be careful.”
“Already on route,” said the flyer as it glided toward the wrecked building.
“My lovely golden roof, I’d know it anywhere.” Prince stared at the screen. “See that oval shape?”
“No,” said Samantha. Prince looked desperate and squeezed his hands as if crushing a rat. The mess below looked like all the other smashed scenes, maybe more gold-tinted.
“At least the trees and rocks stopped flying around,” said Samantha, trying to sound hopeful.
“Now what?” asked Bork. Samantha jabbed him in the ribs.
“I ask the questions,” she said.
“Not anymore,” he reminded her.
The flyer found a flat spot and landed. Prince jumped up, opened the canopy and bounded out, only to fall. What looked like bumpy ground was full of sticks, metal bars, plastic boxes and broken furniture. Strange knocking and clicking sounds filled the air. Prince stared up sadly at the top of the building then carefully walked to a large rose gold door, now raised several feet above ground level. He put his hand up to it. It beeped but didn’t open.
“Is it safe?” asked Samantha, who’d followed him out of the stinking flyer.
“How should I know? Come on, help me get in,” said Prince. He pushed the door hard and the whole frame fell back showing a black hole. He gingerly climbed into the broken doorway.
Samantha and Bork helped the hurt woman out of the flyer and made her comfortable on a small air mattress from the emergency kit. She opened her eyes, drooled and passed out again. The three farmers had found a perfect sofa on a small hill and sat deep in talk.
“Bork, can you get this thing to fly for us?” asked Samantha. He checked the flyer. “It’s locked to Prince. We’re stuck. Any rescue coming?”
Samantha checked. “A big operation in Safeish but it’s quiet around here.”
With a soft rustle everything rose a few inches. Dark red blood oozed from the ground, spraying in huge arcs. Then they dropped back down, blood showering everything.
“Gravity vortex,” Samantha said. “The Uplift machines again.”
Prince emerged from the doorway, holding his head. Then he lay down on a plank and started crying.
Samantha got a Blink.
“What?” She had to sit down too.
“They’ve fired me. I can’t believe it.”
“From the prison? Join the club, we’re free,” Bork laughed.
“What a nerve.” She kicked a bin. “Well fuck them.” Her Blink died.
“They must mean it.” The Blink was a system used for direct employees of the EMU system, to provide them with information, rather than entertainment. She approached Prince, who crouched before his ex-building.
“Can we borrow the flyer?”
“You might as well have it,” he snarled, pressing buttons on a control wand and tossing it to her. “Do something useful. Get food and water. Two hours, the flyer returns here.” He sobbed, then was sick.
“How do you feel?” Samantha asked Prince.
“I lost all my data, my reserves, my backups, my pets are squashed, I’m totally finished, you ask me how I feel? What’s wrong with you?”
“Only trying to help. See you later.”