IMAGINATION'S PLACE
FICTION
JOURNEY TO THE LIGHT
By; Speaker Gerald Polley
All rights reserved.
Chapter 2
Carol didn't realize she had dozed off until the noise of
the plane's wheels hitting the pavement woke her up. "Oh dear!"
she muttered, "I guess I'm terrible company!"
The young man beside her smiled. "You seemed tired
so we decided the best thing to do is just let you sleep. But
your company has been excellent! I haven't enjoyed such a
stimulating talk in ages! You really ought to continue your
studies. You will have free time, you know."
Carol returned his smile. "I just might
inquire about it! Twenty years would be more than enough time to
get several degrees."
They taxied up to the terminal. The rest of the
passengers disembarked, and then they were taken off. Two
security men met them. "Double line, please!" the biggest
ordered. Follow my assistant. Don't speak to anyone."
They proceeded through the terminal. They had gone
quite a ways when a booming voice with a heavy English accent called
out "Whoa! Whoa! Will you look at this? Fresh meat for the
harem of some official around here. I wonder how much they'd
charge for an hour with the little redhead?"
"Party halt!" their escort snapped. With a few
strides he was in the face of the man who spoke. "ID! he
screamed.
"What?" the man moaned.
"You're going to be our guest for a while!" their
escort snapped. Carol noticed his partner was speaking on his
radio. "Apparently," their escort continued, "you don't know it's
against the law here to insult or harass a person in punishment. It's
going to cost you a thousand dollars for each person you degraded! And
you won't be able to leave the country until the fine is paid or an
agreement is signed that it will be paid in installments. Still
think you're so funny, mister man?"
"Aw, come on!" the man moaned.
A man a little ways off spoke up. "Excuse me,
officer!" he remarked, and pointed to a young woman in yellow clothes
with a couple of babies.
"Oh!" their escort growled, "Eleven thousand!"
Two more officers appeared in different uniforms.
"Here you go, gentlemen!" their escort snapped, "Here's the
complaint. You can give him his rights. Gather the names
and address of the witnesses, would you?"
"Yes sir!" one of the men snapped, taking the readout their escort presented.
"You won't need to get any names!" the man moaned, "I won't contest it. I'll pay the bloody fine!"
"Smart fellow!" the officer taking him remarked.
Their escort returned and they continued on. "Whoa!"
one of the other women remarked. "Yeah!" Carol answered.
"Sush!" their escort commented. Everybody giggled.
Finally they were put in a room where they could see the vehicles
coming and going outside.
"Your bus just made a drop off at departures," their
escort remarked. "He'll be right along. Your facility's only
about a two hour drive away. Behave, ladies, and you won't have
any problems."
"Thank you!" everybody piped.
When the escort left the young prisoner next to
Carol sighed. "Whoa! Wish we had some time to express our
thanks to him in a special way."
Carol noticed as she touched her she seemed hot. "You o.k.?" she asked.
"Don't know," the young woman answered. "Been feeling kind of funny."
A bus pulled up outside. The driver left the door
open, came and unlocked the door. "Come along, ladies!" he
snapped with a broad smile, "Get on board!"
Carol thought their procedure was rather lose, but as she
looked both ways she saw there were security people. If anybody
had tried to run they probably wouldn't get too far. When they
were all in the bus, the driver shut the gate just behind his seat and
locked it. "I'm sure nobody's going to be a problem," he
apologized. "This is just regulations. There's water and
snacks in the cooler. Feel free!"
Carol went to the gate. "That other girl," she said, "the young one. I think she's sick."
"Really?" the driver remarked. "I'll phone
ahead to the reception center. They'll have a doctor available. If she
gets any worse tell me and we'll proceed to the nearest hospital. Oh,"
the driver continued, "if there should be an accident an impact would
release the safety catches and the emergency hatches would open.
Let the others know. If something happens to me you're not
trapped in the vehicle."
"They think of everything don't they!" Carol praised.
"They try to!" the driver agreed!
"Thank you!" Carol praised again.
The ride wasn't bad. Some of the scenery was
spactacular! "I thought this was supposed to be flat, featureless
desert!" one of the women remarked. "There's hills and everything's so
green!"
The driver called back "All artificial. But we
produce almost all of our own food. And in a short time we'll
probably be exporting stuff. The hills are actually
towns. Almost everything's underground!"
Finally they came to an ominous gate. A big sign
read "Prison Colony. Do Not Enter Without Consent." They drove
in, the gates behind them closed, and the ones in front opened.
They then came up beside a building. Several people were waiting,
one, a nurse in a white uniform. As they got off she came over to
the young woman. "Oh, yes!" she remarked. "There's definitely something
wrong here. She's not going out to her shelter. She's going right up to
the hospital. Come along, dear! We've got an ambulance right over
here."
A man called out "Carol! Philipina!" Carol went over
to him and another woman joined her. The man scanned their wrist bands,
looked at the readout and nodded. "Come along!" he ordered. "I'll
get you to your shelters. It's too late in the day for you to
receive instructions. That will come tomorrow. But your
entertainment units are all turned on and your communication
unit. You have access to the Red Cross representative. It may
take a few minutes to get approval to contact anyone else. But
there's usually not too much of a problem." He escorted them to a
vehicle and they drove passed row after row of fences. There
would be a long stretch, and then four buildings, two on each side of
the road, then another long stretch. Finally they pulled over.
"Carol!" the man snapped, "This is yours! Come on in!"
He unlocked a gate and Carol followed him to the
house. "Standard unit," he explained, "three bedrooms, kitchen,
eating area, livingroom, full bath. No water
restrictions. Here you go! There's an emergency call button by
the bed. The rule book will tell you what you're allowed and what
you're not. Be sure to read it. The morning man will drop off
someone to show you your duties. Have a good night."
"Thank you!" Carol managed looking around. "Three bedrooms!" she thought, "Why would I need three bedrooms?"
There was food in the refrigerator, a prepared meal for
supper and a breakfast for morning. She watched some television,
washed up. Surprisingly she wasn't a bit frightened! She went off
to sleep without any difficulty, and in the morning wished she'd woken
up that way.