never open again.
Walking through Junction City, Alex saw more of the same. There wasn’t a single person alive in this country that wasn’t in one of the stages he’d categorized. Most of the people here still held onto their frustration and anger. Alex understood that anger. It kept you alive.
***
Sydney started feeling anxious the moment Gordon told him that he was going out into the field. At first he thought it was some sick joke, a continuation of the torture of being sent to the farm camp. But the moment he received the plane ticket, he knew it wasn’t some sort of psychological warfare. It was real. His leg bounced as uncontrollably as his ability to stop himself from hyperventilating. One of the pilots was making his way from the cockpit to the bathroom in the back, and Sydney flagged him down.
“Captain, can you tell me how long the flight is?”
“Shouldn’t be more than forty minutes. We’ll be taking off as soon as the other passenger arrives.”
Sydney wasn’t a field agent. That wasn’t his area of expertise. He belonged in the lab, analyzing the samples sent to him by more-qualified individuals. The field had too much uncertainty. Too many variables that he couldn’t control. And when there were too many uncertainties or too many variables, the higher the probability of chaos. Chaos was dangerous.
Sydney closed the small covering over the window and leaned his head back onto the headrest. He buckled his seatbelt and tightened the strap as hard as it would go around his waist. All he wanted to do was go there, take whatever notes he could, then get back to his lab. His safe, controlled, clean lab. The sooner all of this was over, the sooner he could get back to his bubble.
The airplane’s door was still open, and Sydney could hear the whine of the plane’s engine outside. The sunlight that flooded the cabin slowly became blocked by an encroaching shadow. With each step up the plane’s ladder, the figure’s shadow grew.
Sydney slid down in his seat, trying to hide from whatever was coming. Gordon had mentioned that someone would be coming with him. He figured it was another scientist, but it wouldn’t make sense to send two lab techs into the field.
The cabin was completely dark now as a man carrying no luggage stepped onto the plane. The only things he had were the clothes on his back. A pair of jeans and a black leather jacket.
Chapter 4
Alex stepped out of the truck rig and tossed up three MRE packages to the driver. The trucker nodded, and the rig jolted forward as the trucker shifted gears. A cloud of black smoke flew up into the air and disappeared down the road.
Topeka was just ahead of him, and surrounding the edges of the city were the steel death traps of farm camps. The sentries in charge of running them worked the people inside eighteen hours a day, and sometimes they went days without offering the workers food or water. The only amenity of civilization they offered was a latrine used by the workers for their unfortunate bodily functions.
Meeko was in one of those boxes, slowly wasting away, being whipped if he was working too slowly. The farm camps were full of kids like him. Orphans with no parents. They were easy pickings, and when they dropped dead from exhaustion, starvation, or dehydration, they were easily disposed of.
Alex followed the road until it ran right past the city hall where the Soil Coalition headquarters resided. Alex remembered first hearing about the Coalition almost a year ago. It had an allure and a name the citizens of the country could rally behind. It was the perfect propaganda to give the government enough time to organize the remainder of their resources and recruit what bright minds and strong muscles remained of everyone else.
The Soil Coalition emitted a false sense of hope, one that people still clung to till this day. The early messages of returning to prosperity and bringing peace and rest