Phillip Jennings - The Runaways

“Watch out for cow pies. Sanjay—oh, too late. Yes, all humans came from Earth. I was born on Hidalgo, but I know more about Earth than I do about my own home. There’s just so much more to know.”

Carmen sighed and continued. “Earth has population laws. For the next few generations, no parents may have more than one child. There are a few exceptions, but only for endangered tribes, not for top people. Not for the rich and powerful. Certainly not in the media democracies.

“Having a smart kid is important, to carry on your name, and genes, and to be your proxy in the future. It’s a way of becoming immortal. Have I said enough for you to figure things out? Are you becoming that smart, or should I keep talking?”

Michiko spoke. “If the people on top have kids, and their kids have something wrong with them, they’re stuck. But if they send their wrong kids to Hidalgo—”

“Excellent!” Carmen said. “If the kids aren’t registered, and they’re sent to Hidalgo, those top people get a second chance. Mostly, though, the top people do what everyone else does. If they find something wrong with their baby before she’s born, they get an abortion. Otherwise, the institute would be much bigger than it is. Your parents are the rare minority who couldn’t, or wouldn’t, take the abortion route. A minority of a minority, but that doesn’t make you unimportant. These are important people, and they pay for your care. The institute couldn’t survive without that money.”

“We have to understand this better,” Peder said. “Tell us about money, and about media democracies, and then explain this again. We need to know about ourselves.”

“Money is a way of storing energy for building things and getting work done. It’s based on tokens and numbers. If I tell you about money, it’ll be just like class. You’ll have to learn to add and subtract, and divide and multiply. You’ll have to learn lots of things, but you don’t have paper or pencils, or books.”

“Maybe we’ll go back to the institute,” Peder conceded. “Not yet, though. Let’s see Lake Lago first.”

“What’s that?” Hakim asked. His voice quavered. He pointed ahead. Carmen squinted down the path. “Those are llamas. We have herds of llamas and cattle, sheep, antelope, flocks of turkeys, geese—even the geese are dangerous if you get too close. We let them live wild. That means they aren’t as respectful of humans as you might like.”

“Oh.”

“Will there be more herds by Lake Lago?” Michiko asked. Her dark eyes were focused on the monster shapes blocking the downslope.

“That’s where they go to drink. It’ll be crowded,” Carmen said.

Peder took resolve. He ran at the llamas, yelling and waving his arms. The animals moved away at a moderate pace. One of them turned, guarding their retreat.

The group caught up to Peder. “They don’t want to fight,” he said, breathing hard. “Lake Lago will be big enough for all of us.”

“It’s getting dark.” Olga sounded afraid.

“We’ll rest by those trees. Then go to the lake.”

“And then back across the fence,” Olga suggested.

“I’m getting hungry,” Sanjay said. “Plums aren’t enough. Let’s go home to the institute.”

Carmen smiled. “It’s not easy being free. You guys are learning fast.” The six sheltered under a copse of trees whose lower branches were eaten away, leaving plenty of headroom. The night was darker than in the northern hemisphere, dark and long, but Michiko and Olga were nervous and lacked much relish for sex. Hakim worked on Olga, and then gave up. Only then did she change her mind. “Come behind here,” she whispered. The usual rhythms ensued until dawn, when Olga suddenly shrieked.

Carmen lunged to her feet and circled the trees. “Damn,” she swore. “I’d almost nodded off. Shoo. Shoo. Go away.”

A few meters away a half-dozen cows stared at the lovers with soft brown eyes. Carmen flapped at them with her tunic. Ignoring her objections, the cows ambled after the whole group as they walked downslope and toward the lake. The haze thickened to fog. Not much was visible.

Carmen spoke softly, as if she didn’t want to be overheard by bovine ears. “I wonder about the bull.”

“How smart would cows be if they took Cra 103?” Peder asked. “They seem curious. They want to know things, but maybe they can’t. Their brains don’t hold ideas very well.”

“Do any of you feel sleepy?” Carmen asked. She seemed uninterested in the intellectual capacity of cows. She yawned and stretched. “Am I the only one?”

“What day is it?” Peder asked. “Bedtime is Day 42.”

“It’s well past that,” Carmen said. “Past 50. This is a new trift.”

“We can’t sleep. Everything’s exciting,” Michiko said. “Cows are even bigger than llamas. Look, here are some rocks.”

The group armed themselves. The rocks brought back memories. “You’re the one who conked Doctor Moeller,” Hakim told Michiko. “If we go back to the institute, they won’t be so mad at the rest of us. Not like with you. We shouldn’t share your punishment. It wouldn’t be fair.”

“Are you that hungry? You’d turn me in? You’d say you were sorry just for food?” Michiko asked. “What a shit! Olga can have you. I choose Sanjay.”

“Sanjay’s hungry too,” Hakim said. “I heard him say so.”

The group reached a grassy bank. Slick mud lay beyond, trodden by hooves, lavished with manure, and puddled with water. They squished another two meters and reached the true waterline. The wind didn’t reach down to this low place, and Lake Lago was mirror-still. Cottony seeds floated on the surface. The fog was very dense.

Carmen explained the buddy system. “Hold hands with your partner. Keep the others in sight. You guys can’t swim, so don’t go in above your waists.”

She held her hand out to Peder, and they splashed for a time. She relented and let him give her a kiss. He embraced her and pressed into her breasts. The rains began, cleansing the lower atmosphere of fog. Lago seemed to grow wider. Its mirror surface broke into rain-lashed chaos.

The brightening of the skies was deceptive and brief. The sun set. Suddenly everything was dark. “Back to shore!” Carmen ordered.

The six splashed in. Feeling blindly, they found each other. The cattle mooed and shuffled and snorted. Clearly they were close, and there were lots of them. The rains grew heavier. “This is a nightmare,” Carmen muttered.

“We’ll go back. We’ve had enough freedom,” Peder whispered.

“Do you understand then? You’re big in body, but you’re children until you know a lot more about Hidalgo.”

“This is Year 8, right?” Peder asked. “Eight summers, eight winters. Each winter the animals switch from south to north.”

“That’s right.”

“So each winter does the institute switch from north to south?” Peder went on.

“Yes,” Carmen said. “There’s a winter campus. The layout is almost a duplicate of the summer campus.”

“Classrooms there? Paper and pencils?” Peder bent closer. “Are you disappointed I had this thought? It means we might not have to go back.”

“I don’t know if we’ll survive these next minutes. Something big is snorting out in the dark.”

Peder straightened and cupped his hands around his mouth. “YAAAHHH!”

Instant panic. Shadows of black on black turned and climbed each other, trying to get away. Sanjay and Hakim joined the shouting. Michiko threw rocks and managed a high ululation that was incredibly irritating, even to humans. Carmen grabbed her right and left neighbors, Peder and Olga. “Let’s step back into the water. Those beasts don’t know where they’re going.”