The midday reminder whistle sounded. She had to get going, it was time to go to the arena.
She brushed off her pants and wiped hair from her face. Her glasses rested on the cut log she used as a bench, and she retrieved them. The glasses were custom-made using lenses scavenged from the gone world. The Argarthians and the squires conducted regular salvage missions, and that’s how each building in Argartha had modern conveniences beyond current technology, like toilets, TVs and refrigerators.
Milly went inside and splashed water on her face and brushed her hair. She still wasn’t used to flicking a switch to turn on lights, and she’d developed a new appreciation for the broken light fixtures on the ceilings in Citi back home. Argartha used geothermal generators and solar panels. Respite might have electricity one day, and the artificial lights of Citi would shine again.
Pepper and Turnip watched her every move as she got ready, and tears welled in her eyes at the thought of losing her two closest companions. She didn’t lock the front door, or close any of the windows when she left her house. She didn’t worry about theft, nor did she have any fears as she walked down her street. The homes in her neighborhood were small, and most of the people who lived there considered their situation temporary and planned to move someplace nicer when they’d earned the resources. Folks waved as they sat on porches, or cleaned up their yards.
She’d seen the gone world, the rubble of what had once been, but Argartha was like going back in time to when those ruins stood tall. A maintenance truck rumbled by, powered by a combustion engine that burned alcohol fuel. There were electric cars and rickshaws, and the Provincial Explorers used planes, gliders, and weaponry powered by solar energy generated from the garbage of the gone world.
The suburbs gave way to city central, and the bustle of people and the hum of machinery caused a static in her mind that never ceased and that she’d never gotten used to. Out in the gone world and back home on Respite, silence was golden. In Argartha, the sounds of humanity constantly reminded her she wasn’t alone. She hadn’t decided if she liked it and figured she didn’t since she’d had over two years to get used to it.
Brick buildings that had been part of Fort Hill rose on either side of the road. They were painted with murals in bright colors depicting the gone world, sunny days under cotton candy skies, a giant turtle in its center. Argartha had artists, and writers, and even paid people for these services. A two channel TV station broadcast a faint signal within the confines of Argartha and the outer lands. The world was restarting here and rarely did the tenets of Argartha come into play. Ingo explained that most of those ideas were for when civilization got larger and were in place to avoid the mistakes of the past. Milly still didn’t understand how they would enforce some of the ideals, like population control, but she figured the reborn would have something to do with it, as would the highborn.
The changed among them were mostly a humble lot, and they stayed in their section of the city most of the time. It was hard for reborns to live among regular people, and more difficult for those without a special talent to be subjected to the constant mental prods, intentional or not. She’d heard the leadership of Argartha pushed reborns to marry each other, yet another reason they were somewhat segregated, though they could go anywhere they wanted. Milly worried about some of the gossip concerning Kago Re, the current leader of Argartha, who rumor said could wipe a person’s memory with a thought. Since nobody in Argartha knew who the prior leader had been, Milly figured the rumblings were true.
This begged the question, what would the product of two highborns create? She didn’t think she wanted to be around to find out. She’d have to settle some of these things in her mind and decide what to tell the people of Respite. What advice would she provide about coming here? She didn’t think she’d ever be back. Peter had been right. Argartha was a wondrous place, but she preferred home.
The arena was a small baseball stadium that had a stage and roof added. Scrap metal of all types and colors made a mosaic above, and seats had been added at ground level. As the central gathering spot of the community, any event, whether it be sports, business, or community administration, was held there to accommodate any citizen who wished to be present.
When she arrived, she found Robin and Tye waiting for her outside the entrance. “Tye!” She threw her arms around him and pressed him tight against her.
“How are you, Milly?” he said.
She blew by his question. “What brings you here? You’re not due to come in for months. I thought you decided not to come home?”
“I’m not coming, but I wanted to be here for you if you needed me, and it turns out you don’t,” he said.
“Why?” Milly said.
“Your hearing has been canceled because a directive has been issued,” Tye said. He handed her a piece of paper the people of Argartha made from tree pulp.
Milly accepted the sheet with a trembling hand, her eyes scanning the page as her heart leapt in her throat. Her application to join the Wasted Lands expedition got approved, and she’d be permitted to leave the group before they reached the area where the nuclear bomb detonated almost forty-five years prior. Argartha knight Rene Lacue and Second Chief diplomat Mona Severo would
