CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Also Available
About the Author
Glossary
Copyright
CONSENSUS: PART 1 – CITIZEN
001
This is how we used to live.
His voice sounded deep and solemn, as though he were sharing something profound. And that first word was drawn out, like he was gesturing to something when he spoke. But Rena couldn’t see what it was. Nor could she see him. What filled her sight were things that didn’t exist. Land rising up so tall as to block the sky. Trees growing wild and plentiful. Mist crawling through the forest like a living thing.
“I’m not going out there,” Kirti said.
Her friend’s voice cut through the elusive vision like a cold wind, leaving Rena to stare at the reality of her surroundings. A flat expanse of dark gray soil. Tufts of tan and rust sticking up in random places. Weeds. If she squinted, she could also make out olive-colored splotches of moss, but only a few meters out. Farther than that, all the colors blended into one. It was the fog that did it. Smothering all variation until there was only gray. Above the horizon the gray became brighter. Welcoming. As if someone out there were waiting for her. Rena had never found anyone, or much of anything. In all her exploration, she’d learned that the Barrens were appropriately named.
“It’s cold,” Kirti added. “I’m going back.”
“You’re scared,” Dal said, a hint of amusement in his voice.
“Please.”
“It’s not going to affect your number,” Rena said, turning around to face her friends.
Against the light of the city, Kirti was little more than a silhouette. Her long, black hair and tan skin melded with her white clothing. She glanced down at the blue glow on the back of her right hand. The three illuminated digits would have been clear inside the city. Out here, the fog made them dim and blurred. Kirti had a rating of 022. Difficult to accomplish for a sixteen-year-old.
“I don’t know what I was thinking, Rena,” she said, looking up again. “This is stupid. We shouldn’t even be here.”
Behind her, the Canopy filled the sky in a giant arc. Its translucent panels were gathering and clarifying the rays of afternoon sunlight. From the outside, it gleamed like one of those old-fashioned lightbulbs Rena sometimes found in abandoned buildings along the Outskirts.
Rena turned up her hands. “Everyone’s so afraid of the Barrens. But there’s nothing out here.”
“Except the tree,” Dal added.
Kirti didn’t acknowledge the comment. “Then why do you keep coming?”
Rena opened her mouth, but she didn’t have a good answer. It was complicated. There was something magnetic about the Barrens. They drew her. Being in the city was like being underwater. Out here she could breathe. And then there was this vague feeling of a connection to her past. Memories that didn’t make sense. How was she supposed to put all that into words?
“Well, I’m going,” Dal said. “I want to see it for myself.”
Rena smiled at him. Dal was always ready for an adventure.
Kirti looked back at the Canopy and shook her head. “The sun will be down soon. I’ll wait here for ten minutes, then I’m heading back.”
“We can make it if we run,” Rena said to Dal.
“OK.”
Kirti crossed her arms as if to show the clock had started.
Rena put the city at her back and faced east before jogging farther out into the Barrens. She set a moderate pace that would get them to their destination in just a few minutes. Dal came beside her, already panting. He was tall and lean, though not particularly fit. In the fog, his light skin appeared pale and his blond hair lifeless.
“When did you find this thing?” he asked.
“Last week.”
Seconds passed with only the sound of their shoes against the damp soil. Then Dal spoke up again between breaths. “How can you tell where we’re going?”
Rena nodded toward a short, prickly bush appearing out of the mist on their left. “Landmarks.”
“You memorized the weeds?”
“Yeah … the big ones.”
Dal fell silent again. Not because he lacked anything to say. He was conserving his air.
Rena noted more clusters of brush and made a slight adjustment to their direction before a huge, dark object began to materialize out of the fog in front of them.
“Whoa!” Dal said.
Rena slowed to a walk as they approached the old tree. It wasn’t like the tall, narrow ones in her visions. This one was broad, with gnarled branches reaching out in all directions like massive, crooked fingers. A few lay on the ground in decaying pieces. The leaves had all fallen off long ago. Only the black skeleton of its trunk remained.
“Who would have planted it all the way out here?” Dal asked, walking around the dead tree with his mouth hanging open.
“Maybe no one.”
Dal took his eyes off it long enough to squint at Rena. “What do you mean?”
“What if it grew here on its own?”
“Trees don’t just grow on their own. Someone has to plant them and take care of them.”
“No one takes care of these weeds,” Rena replied. Then she shrugged and looked up at the tree again. “I don’t know. Maybe that’s why this one died.”
Dal slid his fingers down the trunk before rubbing them against his thumb. The decaying wood felt slippery, something Rena had also noted last week. Dal’s breaths came out in puffs of white, lingering near his face. The temperature was plummeting now that the sun was almost down.
Rena took a deep breath and let it escape between her lips, watching it dissipate into the air in curling wisps. “Do you ever think about how we used to live … before?”
“Before what?”
“Esh.”
Dal smiled.
“What?”
“You think about the weirdest things,” he replied.
Rena was considering which reply would be the most sarcastic when a distant yell stole the smile from her face. She peered west into the fog, where it was brighter from the sunset, but there was nothing to see. “Did you hear that?”
“Yeah. Kirti probably changed her mind about waiting. We should go.”
Rena started running back, setting a quicker pace than before.
“You have to admit though, it’s kind of creepy out here,” Dal said, trying to keep up.
Rena didn’t reply. She was worried about Kirti and too focused on watching the ground as she ran, retracing their steps. The glow in the distance brightened. The Canopy appeared out of the fog, taking on more detail with every step. When they arrived at the place where they’d left Kirti, she was gone. Rena’s worry escalated to panic, and she launched into a sprint.
“Wait!” Dal said, having fallen behind by a few strides.
Rena kept going, her eyes scanning back and forth along the open sides of the Canopy where it was anchored into the ground. At this distance, the drab buildings of the Outskirts formed a blocky texture, contrasted against the light behind them. It was difficult to make out anything in the foreground. Rena was about to yell for Kirti when she spotted the silhouettes of four people standing a few hundred meters outside of the Canopy on her right. One was significantly shorter than the others.
Rena came to a halt and dropped to the ground. As the sound of Dal’s footsteps approached, she turned and m
otioned for him to get down as well.
He stopped and crouched beside her. “What?”
“Shut up,” she whispered before pointing at the four silhouettes.
Dal turned his head and squinted. Then his eyes went wide. “Oh no!”
Kirti was backing away from the strangers with her hands out to either side. “Leave me alone!”
“We need to do something,” Rena whispered.
“Oh no!” Dal repeated, rubbing his forehead. “We shouldn’t have left her.” He was struggling to accept the reality of the situation, his thoughts fixated on their mistake instead of a solution. “We were only gone for a few minutes.”
Rena grabbed him by the shoulders. “Dal! Listen to me. Circle around that way where they can’t see you. Go into the city. Find a police officer and bring him back here as fast as you can.”
Dal just nodded.
“Do you understand me?”
“Yeah!” he snapped. “What about you?”
“I’m not leaving her alone.”
“Rena …”
“Just do it,” she said. Without waiting for Dal’s agreement, she got to her feet and began jogging toward the strangers. “Kirti?”
“RENA!” Kirti yelled. The tone of her voice was alarming, even more than her rapid blinking when Rena was finally close enough to see her face.
The three men near Kirti spun around, tense. Their clothing was dirty and ill-fitting. None of them had shaved in days. The one nearest Rena had a rating of 002. He held a small box, and judging by the 000 on Kirti’s hand, it was one of those portable scanners for stealing credits.
“Oh, thank you so much for finding her,” Rena said as she approached, trying to sound winded. She bent over and rested her hands on her knees. “We’ve been looking all over for her.”
Kirti took a few steps toward Rena before one of the men stepped in front of her and raised his hand. “You stay put.”