04
Blast From The Past
The door closed behind Kayla. She let out an audible pant and her throat hung in the air, eyes dead on the sheets, and barely was able to hold herself together.
She slumped to the bed, and puffed air into the sheets until her heart had beaten slower. She got up and hugged Luna. Her breath went on her friend’s shoulder.
“Only the two of us?” Kayla need a clarification.
“Yes. I’m sorry. Just us.”
“I’m— I’m— Why are we here, Luna?” Kayla was scared out of her metaphorical shell. “Why are we here?”
She turned to face the wall.
“I don’t know.”
“I wanna find Jerry. And Melanie. And everyone else. And now we’re here. Our phones don’t work.” She tried to load the browser on it. It rejected the loading bar and returned a No Internet Connection error message. She tossed it lightly towards the mattress. “We crashed and now we are eighty years in the future. Luna, how about we knock both of us out— We are probably both insane now. These people are trying to mess with us.”
“Have you seen something like that in your life? I mean, that thing they all had on their arms. I think it looks like they put a phone on there.” Luna put her head down on the composite nylon that formed her pillow.
“Well, I’ve seen it at trade shows.”
“But that’s also like fifty times as thick.”
Kayla paused and turned to face Luna as an epiphany struck her.
“What was that girl’s name again? That girlfriend of the tall guy?”
“Angel?”
“And the date today?”
“August 17, 2096, I think? My head feels like it’s gone haywire.” Luna allowed herself a giggle. “We’re both losing our minds.”
“Do you still have that note?”
Both of their eyes lit up as Luna felt the paper in her pocket. She was hit with the sudden realization that she somehow was still in uniform. She pulled the paper apart to read the final lines of it again.
”Yours, Angel, 8/16/96.”
“That’s yesterday!” Kayla’s voice raised in Luna’s face, but a dead hang was installed after that line came out of her mouth, and she slipped back into slight bitter realism. “Or yesterday, some twenty years ago. Likely that.”
“Kayla, what have they done to either of us? They seem trustworthy. No signs of them killing you, or me. They are just two people trying to make home for us.”
“The last time I trusted someone I almost got killed. We.” The rich girl snapped at her. “And in a dreary little shack.”
They both look around the room. The bed was in the center but there was enough room to place a nightstand five feet wide, a bathroom to their front, a small desk just to the edge of the side opposite the pillows that sat a small metal cube.
Luna reached over and picked that up. It sprang to light and shot an image onto the ceiling. She orientated her hand and the image moved across the room. She placed it down where the image only painted half of the chair next to the window.
“It’s floating.” Kayla was suddenly interested. “There’s those arrows on the thing.”
The bouncing arrows on the cube’s surface complemented one that was in the center that pointed straight towards the image.
“Okay, so the arrow that goes straight is where the image is at. No wonder there’s this empty patch of wall. They probably just project their screens.” Luna aimed it at the wall opposite to them. The spot turned out to be where they originally found it. “The colors.”
“They figured something out with the projector, then.” Kayla looked at the cube again. “Huh, Screencube. Swipe from side to side to adjust volume. That’s the scrolling text.”
Luna’s finger went over the top of the cube and the speaker inside pumped the noise of the show.
“That’s too loud! Luna!”
“I got the volume down.” She tilted her head at the talk show that seemed like it was the exact same show from some eighty years that they would watch, only with a dash more color.
“Shows in the future are not really that interesting. And they don’t use robots? I mean they still had humans doing the top ten.” Kayla sat up and placed her head against the backboard. “I could have watched this back home.”
“Maybe they are trying to use humans to keep it familiar, Kayla. I would prefer watching her than some lifeless android—“
“You mean the tech isn’t here yet?” Kayla froze. “Oh god, that thing at the square. You think my dad still has it going? Circle?”
“Now that you mention it— I don’t think it has survived. You’ve been around those cliques. I think you knew why. I’m sorry.”
Luna shrunk as she watched as Kayla’s face turn pale white.
“It’s gone.” Kayla purred.
“Well, I don’t have any sources. Maybe ask Alex if he had heard of it. They can give you answers.”
“It’s probably a whole different company now. If it can’t hold for some reason."
“Kayla, I hate to say this but, you’re drowning in your own thoughts.” Luna looked at the window. The sun sinking has rendered their room a shade of azure.
The rich girl turned to the TV.
“We might have dinner soon.” Luna looked at the clock hung high on the wall. “Seven eighteen. They’ll take all our questions. We are the people that have no clue. You know, answering questions like if something in the past has survived until today.”
Kayla stared at her watch. It read three thirty-six.
“It’s probably worth hundreds of thousands now. If they still collect old things. You could be wearing a collectable. We have value too. Not just one thing your dad did. I’ll, uh, go get some water.”
“The letter—“
The rhotic r didn’t receive a chance to be completed as Luna looked back and nodded.