Location: Anderssen residence

Time: Tuesday, October 15

Weather: Chilly

Sunlight streamed through the curtains, tracing elongated stretches of gold and shadow across Meg's quilt. Her alarm hadn't gone off; the ethereal glow of her trusty tie-dye clock still read six forty-five. It hadn't gone off, but somehow she was awake. No unusual noises sounded within the room, and she didn't need to use the bathroom, so what had woken her up?

A soft voice beside her shocked her out of her contemplation. "Good morning."

Out of pure reflex, Meg whipped herself around and almost ended up tumbling out of bed. The rising sun illuminated a full head of blonde hair, framing the intruding figure like a halo. "Mom! I didn't even hear you come in!" For a moment she'd thought she saw her life flashing before her eyes!

Her mom chuckled. "Well, you were asleep, after all." She sat gingerly at the foot of Meg's bed, toying with a light blue ball she'd probably gotten from Meg's shelf. The ball unwound, splaying a long, crocheted scarf with a dark blue zigzag down the length of the mattress. "Is this what you did in club yesterday?"

Meg nodded, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Yeah. It took awhile to figure out how to make the chevron, but I think it turned out okay. Had to unravel it a few times before the edges were straight."

"Yeah, it looks really good, Nutmeg!" She draped the scarf around her neck, leaving it untied for the ends to pool in her lap. "So what do you think your next project will be? You've done a lot of knitting and crocheting already. I can teach you how to latch hook if you want," She hummed.

Meg shook her head. "I was thinking of maybe making another scarf for Mabel. She couldn't come to the club because her sister got in big trouble. It'd be cool to try doing polka dots this time instead of a chevron, too."

Her mom smiled. "That's very kind of you. I'm sure Mabel will be grateful."

"I'll probably see her again today in school. The Hub's gonna be running another research study all this week."

"Another one, huh? Nothing too hard this time I hope."

One drawback of being one of the best schools in the territory was that whenever the government needed a focus group, Quicksilver Academy was always nearby and available. There were, granted, times when this was really good. Once they were doing a study on the effects of processed food on the brain, and the students were given access to all the pop, chips, and candy they could eat. Then again, another time they were looking at endurance and all the boys had to run on treadmills until they were out of breath.

"Nah, just answering questions. We have to wear those sticky skull pads on our heads, though. Diodes or something."

"Sounds like it's going to be a busy day for both of us, sweet pea. Today I have to go to two parent-counselor meetings, on top of regular work. And of course I want to do some catching up with Jean while he's able to stay."

Meg frowned. "Two meetings? What for?"

Her mom laughed. "Oh, the boys have gotten themselves into some predicament or another again, you know how they are. And Chip's counselor is concerned that he might be having difficulty reading, so I have to see her about that too. I tell you," she ruffled Meg's tangled tresses, "do you suppose every family has problems like these or are we the only ones?" As if the laughter bouncing around the room had awoken it, Meg's alarm clock began buzzing. "It's so late already! All I came in for was to ask you to do the laundry and watch the twins this evening when I'm with the boys' counselors."

Meg nodded, switching off the noise. Her mom pressed a kiss to her forehead and hurried out of the room to prepare for work, calling, "Love you bunches, Nutmeg!" over her shoulder.

Meg smoothed her quilt out over the bed and went about her morning routine. She was halfway out of her zebra print pyjamas when she was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Come in, Ada," she called, pulling the garments back on. She could always tell immediately who was at the door by how they knocked. Ada was the only one who would pound on a door until it rattled.

The door burst open so suddenly it hit the wall and made her shelves quiver. Ada scampered in, twisting the fringe of her purple nightgown in her hands. "Meg?"

"Yes?" It wasn't unusual for her sister to enter in such a chaotic manner.

"Can I borrow some lipstick? I have show and tell today."

"And you want to show the class a tube of lipstick?"

"No," Ada made a production of huffing, as if she thought Meg was painfully slow. She put a hand on her hip, sighing condescendingly. "I'm showing my stuffed wombat and I wanna look fancy," she said in a duh tone. Well of course. Didn't wombats and lipstick always go together?

"How about lipgloss instead?" Meg countered. Ada had to think this over. Meg didn't rush her, not wanting to come between a girl and her wombat. Finally her sister reached the conclusion that lipgloss was better than lipnothing, and the worst thing to do at show and tell was show up underdressed.

Meg finished putting on her school uniform and set to work scouring her room, Ada trailing just behind her. For Christmas one of her dad's sisters had given her a whole case of sparkly lip glosses á la dollar store. It wasn't where she remembered putting it, but after months of not using it, it could have migrated to some other part of the house. She seemed to have a vague memory of putting some old junk on the mantle in the parlor.

Blaise was sitting on the window seat in the parlor having his tattoos colored in with magic marker. Despite wanting to be a tattoo artist when he was young, Blaise didn't have any conventional tattoos at all. Instead he got new henna tattoos every other week. For Blaise, this meant he could change things up when he got bored. For their little brother Chip, it was like a coloring book. Blaise seemed perfectly okay with letting Chip scribble his heart out, weirdly enough.

This week appeared to be a paisley design encircling one arm and ending in a mandala on the shoulder. Meg also noted with some concern what looked like a tattoo of a koi fish half hidden beneath the sleeve of Chip's pioneer-style uniform.

"I don't think the elementary school counselors will be too happy with that, y'know," she told her older brother, meanwhile not having given up her quest for lipgloss. Sure enough, there it was on the mantle. She passed it to Ada, who busied herself with opening all of the containers. To her, she said, "Merry Christmas. Go ahead and keep it."

The eldest waved her off. "Relax. I drew it with one of these," he waved one of the black magic markers. "If 'ya think about it, it's pretty similar to henna. Cheaper too."

Ada paused from giving herself a glittery joker smile. "You shouldn't be giving impressionable children like us ideas, Blaise."

"If you're old enough to realize that, you're old enough to think for yourself."

Meg fled the scene before she could get herself roped into the argument.

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...

At the time when the barrier around Evadam was first erected, whether the territory would have access to goods and raw materials was a key issue. To ensure that the territory would be self sufficient even after many years, multiple sectors were devoted to the production of food.

Turquoise Rain, forming a wide ring around the territory closest to the barrier, was put in charge of the growing of crops. The area of this sector, much larger than its neighbors, is divided into sections for fields, gardens, vineyards, orchards, and just about every sort of crop imaginable. The population to land ratio is smaller than in most sectors, with only about one or two families per crop. Computerized machinery does the majority of the harvesting, requiring only that farmland have at least one human to maintenance the androids. Both Turquoise Rain and its sister sector Teal Mist are famous for their low populations and one room schoolhouses.

Teal Mist encompasses nearly as much space as Turquoise Rain but comes just short. This sector is where livestock is raised and used, from milking cows to butchering swine. The animals are raised in captivity by a mix of human and android employees. Unlike its farming neighbor, animal warehouses require not only a handler for the androids but also a vet in case of mishaps.

Marine life is farmed within Indigo Lights, which surrounds a large freshwater lake. Some species of sea life were lost beyond the barrier, but most could be raised in laboratories mimicking saltwater conditions.

Other such laboratories make up the gist of Violet Sparks sector. With animals, plants, and aquatic life taken care of, the task of manufacturing imports was left to Violet Sparks. Products that could previously only be grown in foreign climates can now be created in large scale within laboratories. Bananas, sugar cane, chocolate, even champagne can be readily available to anyone who may want it.

...

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"So even the outsiders have things like braces, huh?"

The five of them were lounging around one of the deserted nooks of the school library, under the guise of 'studying'. Well, Fin and Ob were flipping through a picture book on ancient festivals, so technically some of them were studying. Moxie had grabbed a stack of books she had wanted to look through, but ended up just trying to stack them like cards. Larry and Perry weren't doing anything at all.

Moxie tilted her head, letting her hardcover copy of Blue Moons and Paper Lanterns tumble to the floor. "What do you mean?"

Oberon shrugged. "The way they hype up the outsiders, I always figured if your teeth were crooked they'd, like, knock 'em out or somethin'." He twisted his item of the day, a necklace with a scarlet paper crane at the end, around his wrist.

She snickered. "Just what kind of people do you think we are?"

Fin flipped the page in his book. "Well," he said, "in Ob's defense, we never really hear much of anything about outside the barrier, just that it's pretty dangerous."

"Yeah," Perry put in, "is it actually that bad out there? I've never heard anything from someone that wasn't from the Hub."

Moxie scratched her head. "Well, I never really had much problems growing up, I don't think..." She trailed off, biting her thumbnail. "Well, there is this one thing that's sorta scary. Other than the bears in the forest, I mean."

Fin thought the bears themselves sounded frightening enough. Raised in the wild, not in any zoo or anything! It was like something from a history book. Still, the way she phrased her statement made him curious. "What is it?"

Larry leaned forward, eyes glinting. "Ghosts?" He whispered.

"Monsters?" His brother suggested.

"Totalitarian dictators?" Oberon guessed.

Moxie shifted the book stacks to either side of her so she could use them as arm rests. She sat like they taught in the preschools (crisscross applesauce, boys and girls! Good job! Give yourselves a round of applause!). "I think it has something to do with why we moved inside the Walled City— that's what they call this place out there. We have different names for places and stuff like that. Um, I guess I didn't really notice anything when I was really young..."

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I meant it when I said yesterday that my school was a lot smaller than here. The whole town was only a couple thousand people. I'm pretty sure there's more than that just in Quicksilver Middle. I grew up in a place called South Junction. It wasn't much different from the other small towns in the area. It had a small grocery, a smaller library, and a police station that was really only two officers and a patrol car. There were some mom and pop shops, and a church service was held every Sunday in the Junction Diner. There were two school buildings for all twelve grades: one for k through fifth, one for middle and high school. If you wanted to go to college, you had to leave and go to one of the college cities. The closest was a community college four towns over in Rubycross, but there were bigger and better ones farther away. I always figured when the time came I would stay and help my mother around the clinic. I didn't have any sort of degree, but the town was small enough that anyone who knew what they were doing was good enough for them.

Anyway, when I was in daycare I thought my house was pretty big, but as I got older I realized that was because I was pretty small. My mom ran a clinic during the daytime. She'd walk into town in the morning and usually be back before one. The clinic wasn't too busy because a lot of people in South Junction got medical care from the next city over. That's where I got my braces. My dad worked as a handyman, and so he was out at weird hours sometimes, but he was also home at weird hours too. So sometimes it would be ten at night and only mom would be with us. Sometimes it'd be during regular working hours, but dad'd be at the house. And, sometimes, their hours would be at the same time, and my sister and I would be left alone. I never minded it. Well, at first I didn't because I was too young to, but even when I got older and I was all alone it still didn't bother me. I wasn't the only latchkey kid in my grade.

When I was two or three, I can't remember which one, my sister Haprippa disappeared. She was four or five, maybe six years older than me? Er, wait, I don't mean she was four or five, I mean she was eight or nine and she was that much older... Never mind.

My parents looked all over the place fore her, like, they asked the neighbors, told the police, told the neighboring cities' polices, even gathered up a search party. Nobody was ever able to find her. I don't even really remember her. Just that she liked to take long walks in the forest, sometimes for hours. One day she just didn't come back.

A couple people figured maybe she'd been mauled— that's what they say when you have an unfriendly visit from a bear. But there weren't any signs really of bears being back in the area. The ones that use to be there were all hunted and killed. Other people thought maybe she walked over a collapsing magnium shaft and fell in, but the magnium seams weren't for a long, long stretch westward. And then there were those people who only whispered things. Those other guys, they'd discuss it in the streets and shops where mom and dad might be able to find her. But these people would only say stuff inside, and they'd whisper in mom or dad's ear even then. Once I walked in when someone was sayin' something about 'them'. Mom hushed them up right away, but I still heard them.

Growing up, the topic of who 'they' were was never talked about. Actually, more than not talked about, it was like, even if you asked outright you wouldn't get a straight answer? Or something like that... The kids at my school took the fact nobody seemed to know about 'them' to mean that 'they' didn't exist. Like the boogeyman, sorta. But it seemed like the topic was some sort of taboo; if you mentioned it, everyone would either shush you or pretend not to hear. Every few years or so we'd hear about kids from other towns going missing and never found.

Things were sad around Haprippa's birthday each year, but my parents did come to accept her being gone eventually. Other than that, like I said, I didn't have any problems growing up. My parents wouldn't let me play in the forest like Haprippa did, but I could run around town as I pleased. I went to pyjama parties, had birthdays, thought boys had cooties until I was six— no offense — it was a normal childhood. As far as schoolwork went, I was at the top of my class. Things were going well.

Then one day people just started packing up and moving. All of a sudden! Just like that! I still don't know why! I have a suspicion that it involves 'them' in some way, but I can't be a hundred percent sure. But if it doesn't, it sure is a big coincidence!

I remember coming home from school one day and finding mom and dad shoving all our stuff that would fit into suitcases.

"Moxaene, pack up," mom told me. She told me we were leaving before sundown.

E V E R Y O N E was leaving. It was like the whole town was emptying out. Some of our neighbors migrated to the next city over. Some traveled for miles. We went to the Walled City. That's why I think it's about 'them' so much. Otherwise mom and dad would've been fine moving an hour or so away. Instead we came here. Mom and dad had already lost one daughter to 'them', I guess they figured this was where they were least likely to run into 'em.

I can't tell you how I got in the barrier 'cause I swore not to tell. When we got in we were told to tell wherever we went that we were from Goldenrod. Goldenrod was so crowded that even the government had a hard time keeping track of that sector's people. From there we looked for a place for sale and ended up in a teeny tiny apartment in Silver Glass. I tested to get into Quicksilver and ended up doing better than I and my parents ever thought I would. Um, what else...? All of my stuff is from outside. The only things I've got from here are my textbooks and a map of the territory.

So yeah, that's it. And now here I am!

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It was quiet for a minute after Moxie finished.

"I- I'm sorry," Fin finally said.

Moxie shrugged. "Like I said, I don't really remember anything about my sister. I mean, it's still super sad, but..." She shrugged again. "It's like if a grandparent died before I was born, sort of."

The heaviness of the topic was making Larry and Perry squirm. So they changed it.

"It's weird that so many people left at once," stated one.

"Yeah, whaddaya 'spose that's about?" Asked the other.

They thought on this until the warning chime sounded, all thoughts of projects and reports eclipsed for the moment, but none of them could come up with something even plausible. Fin hoped he would never have to find out.

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Goldenrod sector has one of the highest populations of any sector. Silver Glass, the Hub, and the primaries all have many people in them, however their purposes were for other things. Unlike the skyward apartment buildings and Victorian mansions of Silver Glass, Goldenrod was modeled after the suburbs of what used to be western America. The land is split into a mass grid, with row after row of identical white houses and fences. Every other block or so a street filled with large brick schools and entrepreneurial shops breaks up the monotony of the sector, preventing the mass exodus that would've been necessary every morning for the adults to work and the children to attend school. Occasionally one may run across a house that is unlike the rest: painted blue instead of white, surrounded by a hedge instead of a picket fence, a topiary in the front yard, et cetera. This stems from the recent bill passed by the Hub allowing homeowners to make changes to their property as long as they are in compliance with the sector's covenants.

...

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Saffra shivered, huddling closer around the warmth oozing off their campfire. The light danced against the rock walls of the cramped cave. It had, at least, stopped raining the day before, allowing the forest to dry out enough to gather firewood.

"Do you think we'll run into Juno and Hito?" Wondered Mochii from his position at the cave's mouth. His glasses had fogged up, whether from the cold or from the humidity Saffra couldn't tell. Beside Saffra, her husband shook his head dolefully.

"We're heading the wrong direction for that. Juno was heading towards the Walled City when he left." They had missed the Magnium seam too. The best they could hope for was to try to skirt along until they ran into a tributary off the main seam.

Kiall was pressed as close to the fire as she was, holding up a few articles of damp clothing to finish drying them. Luu had pressed himself against the rocks at the back of the cave, a fair distance from everyone. "When do you think we'll be able to go home?" He sighed.

"Not for a while at least, honey," Saffra murmured. "We'll actually need to head a bit farther away from home once we're all rested up here." Her stomach growled. Hopefully in the days to come they would happen upon some edible plants or fish. They had boiled some weeds over the fire before, but it had hardly been filling.

Luurelle huffed, slouching. "I wish we'd never even left in the first place! I was gonna eat a pork chop sandwich for lunch the day after we left, you know? Maybe even two. If I had a choice between either dying in my own bed with my stomach full of pork or extending my life for a few weeks by sleeping on wet rocks and eating grass soup, I'd rather just die." He rapped his fist on the ground, wincing as it bruised his knuckles.

Ingo gave him a sharp look. "If it were only a question of dying, I might agree with you. But it isn't, and I do not." Nobody could say anything in reply. Kiall, looking close to tears, hunched still closer to the fire.

"Wait!" Mochii breathed suddenly, holding up a hand. "Do you guys smell something?"

Saffra took a deep breath. Indeed, a scorched, metallic smell had permeated their camp. Magnium.

She and Ingo exchanged fearful looks. "Mochii, get away from that ledge! Everyone help us put the fire out!" Ingo ordered, rising quickly to his feet. Untapped magnium doesn't react in its natural state. We're not alone here any longer.

The family huddled as far back behind the rocks as they could. From the distance came a noise like coarse scraping. The sound of footsteps ascending the wall of rock. The family had managed to put the fire out in time, but smoke still wafted out of the entrance. With any luck, they would see the abandoned camp and assume the family had escaped. As the sounds drew nearer the scorching smell grew strong enough to make Saffra gag. Her heart quickened in her chest.

Here they come.