Shattered Roads by Alice Henderson

Author:Alice Henderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2017-12-18T18:59:46+00:00

Chapter18

Long before they reached the city, H124 could smell it. “What is that?”

Byron wrinkled his nose. “Methane.”

She fought the urge to gag. “Where is it coming from?”

“The infrastructure of Delta City can’t handle the population. A long time ago, they started pumping the sewage outside the city. They have sewers within, but outside . . .”

“It just runs off like rivers?”

“Rivers of shit,” Astoria said from the back seat.

H124 pulled her shirt up over her nose. It didn’t help. She could feel the back of her mouth start to water, a precursor of what was to come. Digging around in her bag, she pulled out the scarf she’d found in the weather shelter. She tied it around her face, covering her nose and mouth. It didn’t help much.

“It works well for us,” Dirk said.

She looked back at him incredulously. “What do you mean?”

“It’s where we bottle all the methane that powers our cars.”

She looked away in disgust. “Ugh.”

Byron wrinkled his nose. “It’s dangerous, though. The methane runners can get blown sky-high sometimes. The gas is extremely volatile. Just a spark. and whamo! You’re bottling methane for the angelic choir.”

“The angelic choir? Who are they?”

Byron looked at her. “You know. Checking in at the pearly gates?”

She gave him a blank stare.

“Wow. You really don’t get out much.”

They drove on, storm clouds gathering above. Late afternoon changed into evening. Soon it grew so dark she could see the dim glow of the distant city.

All around them the ground glistened and squished as far out as she could see. The scent of urine stung the inside of her nose. She tried to breathe through her mouth and think about something else.

The radiance grew brighter and brighter. She could see a wall looming before them, the same orange glow that her own city let off, the same bright pinpoints from the floating lights. But the atmospheric shield was different. It rose straight up, stretching across the horizon. She leaned forward in the passenger seat, trying to gauge the top of it, but couldn’t. “Is that a wall?” she asked.

He shook his head. “A dome. So big it just looks like a wall.”

Her mouth fell open. “How big is this city?” She didn’t know what Lake Michigan or the Mississippi delta were.

“More than seven hundred miles long, if you can picture that.”

She tried to imagine how big that was and how many people lived there. He gauged her astonishment. “I’m guessing you might be from New Atlantic. This place isn’t tucked away and orderly like your city. This is going to be rough.”

Just out the window, waves of fecal matter flew up from the wheels. She was sickened that this was her car plowing through the muck. It wouldn’t take long for the panels to get caked.

Still they drove on. The dome kept growing. She kept thinking they’d reach the edge at any moment, but instead it just loomed larger. Soon it filled the whole night sky, and the light was so bright she could barely see beyond a squint.

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