Chapter 29
"Hey! Thomas! Come on!"
"What?" Thomas said, sitting up with a start.
"Nap time is over," Darin said, "we need to leave or we’re going to miss our flight!"
"Oh! Right!" Thomas said, "Sorry, I'm coming!" He hopped up, threw his bag over his shoulder and followed them out. Moments later they were in the taxi, making their way to Heathrow Hoverport. Their flight was leaving in less than an hour. Had the hoverport not had the POD system, they would’ve surely missed their flight.
"All I have to say," Doug ranted, "is that I’m glad no airport from our time ever got this big. Can you imagine how annoying it would’ve been to wait for hours in security only to have to walk an hour and a half to get to your gate?"
"I dunno, maybe then the airlines would’ve been forced to get their act together," Thomas said.
"I doubt it," Doug muttered.
"OK, gate 1825, here we are," Darin said. They took a seat in the terminal and passed the time by looking at the other people around them, dreaming up stories about who the person was, why they were there, and where they’re going. Finally, after about half an hour of people-watching, it was time for their flight. The incoming train from Beijing arrived and was incredibly long. Thomas was unable to count the number of cars past twenty. The people began piling off, making their way to wherever they were going. Meanwhile, the extra cars were being removed from the train, finally coming down to having just five cars left.
"I’ve never seen a train that long before," marveled Lyla. Thomas had been surprised by the length himself, but had nothing from personal experience to tell him if it was unusual or not. He wondered for a moment if this was a premonition of something bad, but quickly concluded that he really had no idea what it could possibly mean. There was no point in getting bothered or worked up over any of it since it could very likely be of no importance.
Before long they boarded the train and, after a short time, were on their way. The trip this time had a much more pleasant view since it passed mostly over land. They looked down upon cities, mountains, and open areas of farmland. It was reassuring to Vera to see so much landscape and farmland still intact despite the explosion in the human population and city size. She had always been a city girl but was very concerned with the environment. In her time, she had always tried to do her part by recycling, picking up litter when she saw it, using more energy efficient light bulbs, donating to environmental groups, and so on. It wasn’t perfect, and certainly wouldn’t make a huge difference, but in her mind, every little bit helped. For Vera, to see the Earth still in decent shape was very comforting, and made her efforts in the past seem worthwhile. She wasn’t able to see much more, however, as the sun was rapidly setting. She turned her attention away from the window and back to the group.
Despite the fact that the flight to Beijing had been much longer than the flight to London, time seemed to pass just as quickly. It helped that they were actively involved in a conversation and didn’t have the incessant Carlton to deal with. By the time they arrived, including the time zone difference and the flight time, the sun was beginning to rise, and rush hour would soon begin. The group exited the train and entered the terminal of Beijing International Hoverport. Size wise, fortunately, it was much like the Clinton hoverport back home, so the walk to the baggage claim was not nearly as long as it had been in Heathrow. However, it was just as congested as Heathrow, if not more so. They pushed through the crowds and made their way, slowly but surely, to the baggage claim.
"I already checked it out," Darin yelled over the heads of a few people to his group, "there’s a really nice hotel about eight blocks from here. We can walk to the POD station down the block and take it the rest of the way. It’d be easier than waiting around for a taxi."
"Whatever, let’s just get out of here!" Vera shouted. She was not a fan of crowds this large. They made their way through the hoverport towards the street, saying no to everyone proffering this or begging for that along the way. Finally, they found the exit and burst through the doors onto the busy street outside.
"Wow..." Darin said. The streets were incredibly wide and packed full of a mass of humanity bigger than anything he--or anyone else in the group for that matter--had ever seen. The narrow strip in the middle that was supposed to be for taxis and other vehicles to come and go was covered with people. A taxi hovered above, honking its horn and broadcasting an incomprehensible message in the local language. Slowly but surely the people made room and it landed successfully. As the passengers exited, countless other people dashed towards the open door, trying to get in.
Meanwhile, Thomas was staring up into the skies above. Commercial and residential buildings towered over the landscape, reaching higher than any skyscrapers he had ever seen before. He imagined that it was the only possible way to accommodate so many people in such a small space. As the group stood there looking around, they were being pushed in the direction opposite from the POD station up the block.
"Darin!" shouted Lyla, "We need to get moving, I think the POD station is back the other way!" Darin looked around, disoriented. He wasn’t sure where it was now. He saw a man leaning against a wall and pushed through to ask him.
"Excuse me!" he shouted above the commotion to the man. The man looked over at him and his translator apparently kicked in. "Can you tell me how to get to the POD station?"
"Yes, here begins the line!"
"What?"
"Line begins here!" he shouted back.
"Line? To the POD station?"
"Yes, line begins here!" he shouted again, then he turned away. Darin looked and saw that the man was indeed standing in a line that extended far down the block. He looked back towards the man and noticed that the line was beginning to extend behind him. Vera, meanwhile, was not faring as well. The mass of people crowding around her was beginning to make her feel claustrophobic.
"I can’t take it!" she finally screamed. "This is … INHUMAN!" She suddenly began pushing through the crowd and back towards the doors to the hoverport.
"Where are you going?" Thomas shouted after her.
"Anywhere but here!" she shouted. "Anywhere but here!" The group tried to catch up and finally got back into the hoverport. Vera was in line at the ticket counter, lashing out at anyone that came too close.
"Where are we going to go?" Darin asked as he approached.
"I don’t care, as long as it’s not here. Let’s just go to Africa and take the safari now. It’ll be nice and quiet and we’ll be away from all the people." Vera’s eyes pleaded desperately. Darin looked back at the others. Thomas and Lyla nodded in agreement. Doug just shrugged.
"OK I guess," he said. Though he didn’t particularly care what they did, he was a bit annoyed that they spent the time and money to travel to Beijing without having any inkling that it was this crowded. But there wasn’t anything they could do about it; the Wiki pages were, once again, unhelpful. The next few hours dragged by slowly, but they finally got things where they needed to be. They spent the night in the hoverport in Beijing. By the next morning, they were exiting the Nairobi International Hoverport and getting into an open air taxi that was going to take them to their safari destination.
"Let’s just hope this doesn’t turn out to be a disaster too..." Darin said.
"It’s a tour of the local wildlife," Doug scoffed. "I don’t think two-hundred years could’ve changed something like that all that much."
He had no idea how wrong he was.