“Did someone just say something?” He asked.

“No,” his father grabbed another hot dog from a nearby plate, “no one said anything.”

Robert looked up at the green leaves, dancing gracefully in the humid summer air. He was certain he had heard something. Liz was talking to their mother about something she had heard on the news, a store that was supposed to be built soon, gossip about the other girls at her school, and stunts she had seen David perform on his bicycle. David had already left the table – he kicked a soccer ball around the nearby trees. His father searched absentmindedly for the relish with his hand across the rough wooden surface of the table, while geese honked in the distance.

“Come to us.”

He stood up. Images flashed through his mind; images of serenity, peace, and satisfaction. Of lazy days like this one, continuing on for eternity. He could sense it, just beyond his sight. “I’m going for a walk, I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he said, mostly to himself. His family barely heard him; his father gave a slight nod as he poured the sweet relish.

More images came to him, visions of the future he wanted. A picnic, not with his family, but with his girlfriend. Then, walking along the trails by the pond in the afternoon. Whispers in her ear. Kisses. Watching the stars. Her love in the silver moonlight.

“To this future we can take you.”

He barely noticed the gray dust as it flew around his feet on the trail, leaving light marks on his dark red sneakers and stonewashed jeans. His vision was set firmly on the future presented to him. He hadn’t chosen this future; it had ridden on the wind and carried him away. More visions and images filled his head. A leader of a great cheering crowd. The father of a whole nation, ultimate arbiter of all matters of importance. An object of worship. A legend. A god.

“Come to your destiny. Come to us.”

His feet followed the voices as if his body were a train running on its tracks. Every time he wavered in either direction, they would resist, and he continued to walk forward the same as before. The voices continued to whisper, calmly, seductively, quietly on the wind. Finally, the path led him to a clearing on the top of a small hill; he had traveled much further into the park than he had ever before, and with a speed he hadn’t realized he was capable of. Below, he saw large black metal spires rising from the scorched earth, thin silvery-metallic hands on long robotic arms reaching into the sides of large tea-colored factories that seemed to breath in the air around them through giant stacks, and a sky blue pyramid with a perfectly smooth surface at the center. His eyes saw an alien and industrial city. He shrunk back, just a step; for a second, he heard nothing but silence.

“We are waiting. Come to us.”

Once again, Robert felt an invisible pull, a magnet tugging him forward. He began making his way to the pyramid, step after step down the hill. He smiled with a certainty that everything he ever wanted awaited him.

He listened to the footsteps of his friends around him, echoing throughout the dusty metallic-gray street that they were walking on. The clomping sound of old shoes striking against the pavement echoed against the brick building and steel structures that climbed from the factories and shops and hung over the nearby river. The orange glow of the eternal dusk flooded every corner of the city, created by one of the many disasters that happened in the apocalypse nearly twenty five years ago. The long, sharp shadows of the actual afternoon contrasted against the bronze glow.

Chris had apparently decided that it was too quiet. He spread out his arms and ran in front of the group, screaming. Everyone else stopped and looked at him. He turned around and bowed, as if he had done something amazing, and said, “Thank you, thank you.”

“What are you doing?” Luis responded coldly, but with a slight chuckle. Luis was always like that - he had a cold, dark personality that was nonetheless willing to accommodate others.

“Ah, you’re all too serious, that’s all,” Chris accused.

“Oh gods” and “whatever” were Robbie’s and Samuel’s replies.

“Keep trying, Chris,” Andrew said, “I’m sure someday you’ll be surrounded by people who see things your way.”

“Well, those people won’t be you guys, that’s for sure.”

They all chuckled and continued walking down the dusty street as Chris continued talking, “I hope you all loosen up a bit for tonight. Remember? The big party at Robbie’s? We’re going to play some games on the PC, and there are going to be tons of cool people there, including some of the ladies.”

“Ugh, how could I forget what you talked us into?” Robbie muttered.

“You’ll be there, right Andrew? Not hanging out in that creepy place you can home? Hannah and Sarah and a couple of their friends will be there, and we’re going to play an FPS or two.”

“Hey, I happen to like where I live.”

“Whatever, Caveboy.”

“At any rate, yea, I’ll be there. I have to check in with a few people, so I might run a touch late.”

“Have to go sacrifice a goat to the cult gods?”

“Hey now, it’s not like that at all!”

“Well,” Samuel commented, “all I have to say is that I think those people you live with are weird, living in a big industrial complex like that, and, really, you are too. Seriously, we could find you a decent place, you could hang out with us or something until then. Why not?”

“I’m staying right where I am, thank you. And speaking of that, we’re here,” Andrew said, breaking away from the group and turning into one of the many alleys, “I’ll see you guys later then.”They chimed in one after another, “Ciao, man,” “Bye,”and “Hey, remember, Hannah’s going to be there. I think she’s after you. Yup, she wants some Caveboy style.”

Their footsteps continued away from him, echoing in the narrow passageway. He walked forward, keeping alert for anyone, unlikely as it may be, that would try to follow him inside. The complex security force was very strict about people entering unauthorized. He arrived at the door to the “cave,” a massive steel structure that protected one of the most controversial societies of Andrew’s post apocalyptic town.

Andrew gazed briefly over the giant metal security door that towered over him, protecting the denizens of the society on the inside from some of those on the outside. It was mostly flat and almost always closed, with just a tiny door for people like himself to get in and out, and speck of keypad next to it. He punched in his password, and the passageway slid open into the rest of the portal. He quickly passed through, and heard it close automatically behind him.

The sights of the hidden city rose up to meet him. An exclusive enclave, Andrew had never even brought Luis in here. People were bustling through the street in front of him - the crowd wasn’t as dense as in a large city of several decades past by far; those types of crowds existed only as recorded and memorized in images, but it was still sizable, with only small gaps appearing between people as they went in different directions. He supposed that he should get HJ or Aet Chae’s permission and show his friends around someday - they were under the impression, as a lot of people on the outside were, that this place was full of machinery - a dirty factory-opolis of sorts.

He started dashing down the street, weaving in and out of the crowd and narrowly avoiding people on his way to Cara’s shop.

“Whoa boy! Where’s the fire?” a deep voice with a bit of drawl he recognized immediately shouted at him. He turned around and saw Aet Chae, the rotund head of security for the complex.

“No fire, Mr. Chae, just headed over to Cara’s place.”

Something briefly caught Andrew’s eye in the crowd, or maybe it was someone. A figure, a bit shorter than Andrew himself was, covered in a coarse burlap material seemed to dart behind one of the buildings.

Noticing this, Aet Chae asked “Hey kid, what you doing, staring off into space like that? You see something?” Andrew blinked and the image was gone.

“Sorry, guess I spaced out. I was just admiring the scenery.”

“Scenery, huh? This place’s come a long way, but it hasn’t come far enough that it has scenery to look at. Anyways, I got news for you.”

“News for me? What…”

“Just listen up, ok? Full details will be posted around tomorrow, but everyone is going to need a new password for the door. And I mean everyone, including you. Now, I know you have a history of forgetting your password when it changes…”

“Not every year… just most of…”

“Shut up and listen to me for a minute,” Aet Chae interrupted with a pleading tone, “this is important. Now, we’re changing the passwords for everyone for a reason,” he paused and glanced to his left and right in a controlled, straight movement, “We have reason, to believe that an intruder has entered the complex. A robot or android or some other mechanical thing. As you already know, we must find and eliminate this uninvited guest, or, at the very least, determine its purpose and eject it from our community.”

“No problem, I’ll keep my eyes peeled…”

“I ain’t finished yet,” he howled, “Now, where was I? Yea, I was just getting to the new security measures. To aid our search for this intruder, our security forces have implemented new security measures and procedures that must be followed. Most importantly for you, security personal must now manually and directly open the door for anyone who forgets their password. They will no longer be allowed to remotely open the door after hearing someone on the intercom.”

“I got it.”

“Good. So two things: first, show up sometime tomorrow and get your new password; second, don’t forget it, or Dr. Jazel and I will have some words for you.”

“Thanks,” Andew exclaimed as he dashed back into the crowd. Aet Chae’s brow furled, and he muttered to himself, “I still wasn’t done talking, damn kid.”

Andrew was moving again - he wanted to meet up with Robbie and the others before anything else got in his way and wasted his time. He jogged down the street past the first five or six buildings, dodging between and around the people that didn’t get out of his way, and ran down the creaky, rusty steps into Cara Kato’s store. Each step make a particularly satisfying clank as he hit it. He pushed the door open and heard the familiar jingle of bells hitting the other side.

“Andrew, where the hell have you been?” Cara’s voice hit him, “You haven’t stopped in here for three days!” She only used that voice when someone had really pissed her off in the most egregious way possible. Andrew suspected that she had cultivated it for use against would-be shoplifters. Even Aet Chae and HJ didn’t like arguing against her when she used it.

“Aw, gee. Sorry Cara,” he softening his voice just enough to make it clear that he wasn’t going to argue with her, “guess I was having too much fun.”

“Damn right,” she said. Her whole figure seethed with anger, but her voice likewise softened into a fairly normal speaking tone. “Show your face around here more often, I worry about you,” she added.

Andrew glanced away from the dark and pale contrasting shape of the store’s proprietor and began browsing through the spartan wooden shelves. The store was less than organized - identical items were usually together, but that was the best that anyone could hope for walking into Cara’s place. Bags of potato chips sat next to high end business software of the bygone era, and long dead cell phones found a place next to bottles of kitchen cleaner. After browsing up and down a particular isle a few times - it was amazing how Cara had shuffled things around in under a week - he found his favorite type of beef jerky and grabbed it. He placed the three dollars that it cost on the counter and dashed out of the store. He thought he heard Cara mumble “damn kid” to herself behind him, but he wasn’t sure.

Back on the street, the crowd had thinned a bit, and Andrew no longer had to put so much effort into dodging people as he made his way toward his home, one of the many unclaimed apartment buildings in the complex which hadn’t been sold to any landlord by the central office. HJ had decided that it was up to someone who wanted to rent an apartment out to add some value to it, and let anyone move into one of the unsold buildings after paying a few dollars to register. His apartment had been registered in his name for as long as he could remember, although he suspected that Cara had helped him out when he was younger.

He began twisting and turning down the side-streets off of the main road. He wanted to pick up his stuff and get over to Robbie’s as soon as possible. “Who knows?” he thought, “Maybe the others are right about Hannah.” He arrived at the building, and darted in through the glass doors. He gracefully reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys. He was right in front of his door, about to open it when he sensed that he was being watched.

There was a presence there; he was not alone. He turned his head slowly, mechanically, and looked down the hallway. There, looking at him, was the figure that he had seen earlier in the street.

It was just slightly shorter than Andrew was, and his body, which was full but not overwhelming like Aet Chae’s, was completely covered in a dirty, baggy, coarse, burlap robe. Beneath the hood, Andrew could just barely see the outline of a face, with two glimmering eyes and a sharp but not protruding nose.

Alarmed, Andrew stepped back and widened his stance, turning to the side. He asked, half to himself, “Are you the intruder?”

“Intruder?” the figure croaked weakly, “No, no, been here longer than you have, Sonny. Just stopped you because I wanted to talk to you. You don’t mind, do you?”

“No, I guess not,” Andrew responded. Actually, he was greatly disappointed; not only did he make a mistake thinking this was the intruder, but he was going to be late when he finally met up with his friends because some weird elderly figure wanted to gab at him. Andrew wondered if he was actually talking to a man or a woman - he couldn’t quite tell.

“You see,” the figure said, “I have a problem. A serious one. I was hoping that you could help me, since you get outside so much. I’ve seen you around, you see.”

Andrew was slightly unnerved by the way this person knew about him. He also wished that the lighting was a bit better in the hallway - it almost looked to him as if the figure’s mouth was immobile. He prodded hesitantly, “Go on.”

“Well, you see, in times past I used to be able to correspond with my friends through the local post office. Now, when things hit the fan a few decades ago, things looked bad for me, as far as that went, and with the breakdown of society and all, mail was the least of everyone’s concern, including mine. Now, I know what you’re thinking, but hear me out for just a more minutes, Sonny. Anyway, after things calmed down a bit and the mail got started up again, I used to go to the post office here, but I ran into some trouble a few years ago that prevents me from doing so.”"What sort of trouble?”

“People trouble, Sonny. Had an argument with someone there, said he’d bust my face in if I went down there again. So, I have a backlog of a few years worth of letters, and no way to get them to their destination. I haven’t been outside so long, I’m afraid I don’t have the slightest clue where any of these people really are or how to get to them.” The figure held out a stack of a half-dozen envelopes in a long, wispy grasp toward Andrew. He took them and looked at the addresses.

“Well, first of all,” he said, “I’d like to help you, but I can’t. I can’t take these letters to the post office.”

“No?”

“No. You see, all of these addresses are on towns on the other side of the river. The main bridge collapsed about a year ago. There’s still a footpath across, but trucks and cars have to drive around for miles, so they stopped sending mail back and forth.”

“I see…”

“Second, the price of postage has gone up, way up. It costs three time what you put on here to send a letter out of town. Even if the bridge were fixed, it would cost more than that to send one of these letters. Sorry, I can’t help you.”

“Are you sure you can’t help me? I’d make it worth your time. Maybe you could run those letters to their destinations yourself?”

“Wow, you really haven’t been outside for a while.”

“I’m sorry. Is it dangerous?”

No, it’s not that. All of these places are fairly tame, but they’re all separate from each other by about half a day’s walk. I’d be wandering around the countryside for over a week trying to deliver all of these things.”

“Look, Sonny, I know I seem like I’m being unreasonable, but these letters are important to me… they’re the most important thing to me in the whole world. I said I would make it worth your time, and I really will. Now, listen close. One of those letters is to an associate of mine of many years named Drina Scalet. She has great wealth. If you deliver this letter to her and explain how difficult it was to deliver them and say that I promised a decent reward, she’ll make good on my promise. So, what do you say?”

Andrew pondered what he heard - Chris once joked that counterfeiting should be legal, since the reason that the economy was so poor was because no one had any money to spend. Times were tough, and all of them could use some extra cash.

“Would this Drina pay enough to make it worthwhile for me to split up the reward with my friends?” he asked.

“Absolutely! Is that what you’re thinking - you’ll split up the letters, deliver them, then split up the loot? I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.”

“Yea, fine, I’ll do it. But only this once, figure out something else the next time you have letters that need be delivered.”

“Thank you, Sonny. Thank you! I promise you won’t be disappointed. You’re a fine kid.”

“Yea, see you around,” Andrew said, unlocking the door to his apartment. He stepped through the threshold quickly and slammed the door behind him. The figure chuckled to itself, and walked away.

A few hours later that night, he arrived at Robbie’s house, home of the famed 66 MHz computer. Robbie’s parents were out of town, and Chris had convinced him to throw this party. Just like the others had said, Hannah was there, along with her friends and about seven or eight people that Andrew didn’t recognize. Loud, nervous music was blaring in the background.

“Whoo-hoo! Gonna dance the night away!” Chris cheered from a tabletop on the other side of the room. He took a swig of something - Andrew hoped it was just soda - and jumped onto the floor, startling some of the other partygoers.

“Hey Andrew, glad you could make it.” Robbie said, his voice struggling to rise above the music from just a few feet away.

“Hey,” he responded, “Could I talk to you and the others when the party’s done?”

“Done? Like Chris said, it’s going all night. I don’t think I could get anyone to leave before three in the morning if I tried.”

“Damn, so much for that idea. Well, could you gather them up so we could talk? It’s important.”

“Sure man, just wait outside. I’ll rustle the rest of the guys up.”

Andrew wandered back outside. He looked up at the filtered orange glow of the stars. A light spring breeze blew through the yard and past his body, contrasting with the heat of the crowd inside. He wondered how he would explain what he wanted them to do. It would sound crazy - unless he came up with some sort of a cover story.

He waited a while and started to wonder if Robbie had forgotten about him. “I really can’t do this alone,” he thought, “I need the guys behind me on this.”

Suddenly, the front door opened. Andrew almost started complaining about how long he’d been waiting when he realized that it wasn’t the guys - it was Hannah.

Andrew could just barely see the gleam from the think belt slowly below her waist. Her tight shirt and low rise jeans revealed the shape of her chest and hips. Andrew was secretly grateful that he was outside as he caught sight of the piercing peeking out under her shirt and against her smooth, flat stomach; if he was inside, he thought, he would have fainted.

“Hey,” she said, “I was looking for you. Robbie told me you were out here and that I should tell you that he’ll be out in just a minute.”

“Oh, that’s cool.”

“Yea, they’ll be right out,” she said with a sigh. She looked upward and added, “wow, the stars are the perfect shade of orange tonight.”

“Yea, I guess.”

“I remember reading about how the stars used to look white for the most part. It was an older book — it even had pictures that were taken in space.”

“How’d they manage to pull that one off? I’d have thought pictures like that would locked with a DRM for sure.”

“Dunno,” she said gleefully, “but the pictures were beautiful. I’m glad they licensed them and put them in that book. It’s not in such great shape now — the pages are a bit faded. But, I still like to have a look at it when I want to remember what stars really look like.”

They stood there and pondered the subtle influences of the apocalypse and the endless dusk that had followed them; they were literally under a misguided attempt at psyops by someone almost certainly long dead. Suddenly, a thought struck him.

“Does that mean the moon’s the same way?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Huh,” he muttered, “I think it would be weird to have a white moon. It’d look too much like a giant eyeball or something.”

“Really?” she laughed, “I always thought it’d be more like a volleyball.” They both chuckled.

Redirecting her attention to Andrew, she said, “Hey, I’m going to be running a few errands with Alex and Sarah tomorrow, hanging out, stuff like that. We could use someone else to help with some stuff. Would you like to come along?”

“I’d like to,” Andrew carefully let his disappointment drip into his voice, “but I can’t. I promised someone that I’d do something for them tomorrow.”

“Oh,” she said, surprised, “well, if that’s the case, I’ll just find someone else to help. See ya round.” She turned around and went back inside to the party, leaving Andrew alone with the night sky and cool breeze.

Andrew stared at the door for a minute, and then muttered to himself, “Damn, no reward is worth that. I hope it’s at least halfway decent.”

“What ya sayin’ there, Caveboy?” Chris said, bursting out of the door and bouncing down the steps with Robbie, Luis, and Samuel in tow.

“I need a favor from you guys,” he said, ignoring the question, “a big one.”

“What sort of favor?” Luis asked, raising one of his eyebrows just a bit, but otherwise remaining cool.

“I need you to go with me across the river to hand deliver some letters. If we split up, we’ll be done in a day, and we can meet up again at the footpath when we’re done.”

Luis clearly objected; both of his eyebrows were up in the air, and his mouth was agape. He tried to speak, but couldn’t get a word out before Robbie and Chris had agreed with an enthusiastic “We’ll do it!” Luis glanced at the others and decided it would be better to play along this time. Collecting himself again, he nodded his acquiesce.

“Really?” Andrew asked, stunned by how quickly they had all agreed.

“Yea, it must be worth it if you’re asking,” Chris explained, “besides, it’ll be fun.”

Despite the party, the next morning found them on their way to the towns on the other side of the river. By mid-afternoon, Andrew had delivered his letters, and was headed back to their meeting spot.

He had gotten his reward – Drina, a tall dark figure of a women, had taken her letter and almost wordlessly given him two thousand dollars after he explained why he was there. Four hundred dollars for each of them meant, in Andrew’s mind, that the trip had been worth it after all.

“Hey,” Luis shouted, “where ya been? We’ve been waiting.”

Andrew looked at the clearing around the footpath across the river. Everyone else was already there. “I’ve got good news,” he declared, “not only did we do a good deed, but we were paid quite nicely.”

“Oh,” Chris remarked, “did we get a book of up to date stamps so we don’t have to ever do this again?”

“No. Four hundred dollars, each!”

Luis’s eyes nearly jumped off of his face. “What the—?” he exclaimed, “Who pays that kind of money for running some errands across the river?”

“Who knows?” Chris snapped back, “Money is money. Let’s just be happy and not ask questions. It’s not exactly like we can give it back now.”

“If you say so, man.” Luis muttered, returning to his normal, level headed self.

Andrew swiftly gave four of the bills he had been given to each of his friends. They stuffed the cash in their pockets, and headed home across the river.

Later that night, after they had spent a disturbingly large portion of the money they had earned, Andrew headed through the ally back toward the giant complex door. He prepared to enter his password, which he had picked up in the morning before leaving.

As he approached the door, though, he realized that it was already open and he could just walk through. “Wow,” he thought, “it must be my lucky day. First I get all that money, and now HJ and Aet Chae must have loosened up about the door.” He decided to go see Cara to tell her what happened and do some late-night shopping. He made his way through the nearly empty street to her store, and pressed a button on the intercom next to the entrance.

To Andrew’s surprise, she answered almost immediately, “Who’s there?”

“It’s me, Andrew. I wanna talk to you about a few things, pick up some stuff if that’s ok.”

“Um… now’s not actually a good time,” she paused, and Andrew thought he heard another voice in the background. She sighed and said, “come on in, Andrew. The door is open.”

Andrew pushed the door open and walked in. There, between the counter and the shelves were the city’s two leading citizens — Dr. Henry Jazel and Aet Chae. Cara Kato was standing just a few feet behind HJ, and they were both facing Aet Chae, who seemed to have some sort of metal foil covering his right arm — the sleeve had been ripped away from his button-down shirt, and his jacket was missing.

“Andrew,” HJ said, “it’s great you’re here. I wanted to thank you.”

“Thank me? I don’t understand.”

HJ snickered a bit at this remark, “No, I wouldn’t expect you to. But, believe it or not, you’re a hero. Yes, a hero.

“You see, a long time ago, long before you were born, I was a researcher — no — head of research at a secret facility. I created, along with my team, thirty robots. Things were going well until political circumstances brought the ‘apocalypse’ upon us. When that happened, the robots saw their chance and ran. The first generation was quickly found and eliminated — they had taken to hiding in ditches and warehouses, places where they thought they would avoid being seen. The luckiest among them didn’t last a year. The second generation fared little better, although one of them is still missing. But the third generation, the chi series, they were clever. They blended in perfectly wherever they went. One was an executive at a large corporation. One was a chef on a cruise ship. Another improved on the methods of the previous series by buying an old warehouse and living in it as a recluse. One of them even ran for congress and was elected — it took us three years to realize that we were looking for someone who was on national TV every other week!

“One of them, though, had audacity that would put the others to shame if they were still around. One of them never really left the lab… he showed up a week later in a disguise and with a few fake IDs, applied for a job, and pretended to be my friend until just a few hours ago.” HJ wagged his finger at Aet Chae who looked genuinely ashamed.

“Well, that’s nice,” Andrew said without confidence, “but what’s that got to do with me?”

“Aet Chae had instructed the security forces to arrest one of my informants, another creation of mine, incidentally, who had found out the truth about him. He kept a close eye on me, to make sure I didn’t find out that truth. But, that informant was finally able to get a message to me. It gave you letters to deliver to my associates from the lab in the surrounding area. Once the message got to them, they had no difficulty sending it along to me.

“And this is very good news for all of us, Andrew. This complex was always locked to prevent one of the chi series from getting in. This means that we’ll be more open to the outside world from now on.”

Aet Chae turned a bit. Andrew say that what he had originally mistaken for something covering Aet’s arm was, in fact, his arm. The letters “8X” shined off of the metallic surface.

“I have a last request,” the defeated Aet Chae said.

“What is it?”

“Cara,” he said, breaking up as if he were about to cry, “Cara, take that kid out of here. I don’t just mean out of your store, although Lord knows no one should have to see what’s about to happen here, let alone him. Take him out of this cave, this dungeon. I’m just getting what I deserve for helping this monster. He built this place to protect himself, and it became his prison. But that boy, Cara, he doesn’t deserve any of this. Just ’cause his mother was foolish enough to leave him here…”

“That’s enough,” Cara gasped, “I’ll do it.”

Andrew had been paying so much attention to this conversation that he hadn’t immediately realized that they weren’t alone. The presence of several other people trickled from his peripheral vision into the forefront. They were the security force that Aet Chae had previously led, hiding along the walls and in the shadows of the store, and armed with their typical mishmash of different guns.

“Come on Andrew,” Cara said, grabbing him gently by his shoulder, “let’s go.” She opened up the door behind them, and they left the darkness of the store behind them.