How Does Life End?

It was like two old friends reuniting after a long absence—

Elijah walked forward, placing his hand into the open face of the shorter man’s across from him, solidifying a solid handshake. Before it was aborted, Elijah then turned to Lillian and Slater for the much-needed introduction.

“You two, this is Joseph. The two of us set up this emigration venture out here a couple years back.”

The man being introduced turned his waving hand to the siblings as his name was said, before chiming in himself.

“You two can just call me Mr. Moretti, sound good?” The man flashed a smile through his beard and extended both his hands now for handshakes as he’d given Elijah. Slater and Lillian complied, but not without sharing the same thought: He’s Elijah’s friend alright.

As the handshakes ran their course, Elijah inserted himself into the situation once again.

“Of course, the young woman here is Lillian. She’s probably the closest one to me, you’ll find.” Elijah elbowed his friend lightly in the shoulder. “And the boy is Slater, he’s a rowdy one himself.” Slater only earned a point from the man driving the introductions. Joseph simply laughed, finally being able to put faces to names.

The man inched closer to the two, putting a hand around his mouth to whisper towards them. “Ya know, you two, Elijah here has told me all sorts of crazy little stories about when you kids were younger, maybe we can see if you remember any—“

Lillian kicked the man in the shin and carried on inside, closely followed by Slater as Joseph crouched down to hold his leg. The interior of the warehouse was mostly bare, with the rusted walls only containing semi-small piles of supplies in some of the corners, packed against the walls. Either that, or the scattered workers moving the supplies around. On one wall, near a large door that could open to let it through, was a large hunk of metal neither of the siblings could identify, with its own workers huddled around it. As they stared on at it, Mr. Moretti came up from behind and gave a simple command of “feel free to explore” before retiring to his own corner he had prepared as his ‘management space.’ Lillian, tuning in to his voice, had some questions she wanted clearing up, and followed him to the area, while Slater stayed with Elijah to continue admiring the exotic machine.

To have her approach not come off as creeping up behind him, Lillian thought it best to address Joseph how he wished.

“Mr. Moretti?”

The small man turned back from where he was seated, initially with a face of concern over why someone needed him now, but quickly softened when he recognized it had just been one of their newest guests.

“Can I help ya with anything?”

Sitting on the ground herself, resting one arm over her knee, Lillian came down to meet his eye level to continue the conversation.

“I was just curious how long we have until the party goes out?’

Joseph laughed at the simple question, and checked an archaic sort of timepiece on his wrist Lillian didn’t recognize, then gave his answer swiftly.

“Aye, you’ll just have to keep yourself entertained four or so hours. We still have some work to finish and people to have show up. Usually, folks intending to emigrate don’t come until an hour before so they don’t get caught.”

Lillian nodded, but now had any other questions driven out by the mysterious accessory. “Excuse me, sir, but what is that thing?” She let out of her mouth, pointing at the man’s wrist. “Wouldn’t a digital interface be easier to use to check the time?”

Initially stunned at the question, Joseph gave a laugh to dwarf his previous one once he had realized what she had asked. “Oh, this little thing?” He moved his wrist to show it off. “It’s a watch, little piece of machinery that can tell time just as accurately. Can’t risk using any of those fancy gadgets for something that trivial, or else the government would be all over us within the hour!” He continued with his laugh before, before stopping abruptly. “If you really wanna use those things without being swarmed, best wait until you get to the East!”

Hearing mention of specific culture from the other side, Lillian leaned in closer. “The East, have you been there?”

He gave a quick glance over to Lillian, almost as if it took him a moment to realize she had said anything. Soon after, his face then returned to hanging downward slightly, staring at his watch. “Nah, my lot in life has been getting people over. I could never live over there myself.”

Lillian’s head tilted. “But couldn’t you tag along with one of these groups easily?”

Giving a small nod, Joseph’s eyes began to develop a forlorn look. “Aye. But, if I did that, I’d be forcing someone else here to take my place, wouldn’t I?” He looked around at all the people off doing their own jobs within the warehouse, then returning back to his watch. “I can’t be forcing other people to do this job and be stuck here like me, just ain’t right. Things are just better if I’m the bridge gettin’ people to the other side.”

Lillian now found herself looking into the watch as well. “A job you can’t let anyone else do, huh?” As she pondered those words, she turned back to where Slater and her had been earlier. Slater still was admiring the metal machine in the center of the warehouse, but now it seemed he had started engaging with one of the people huddled around it.

“What is this thing, anyways?” Slater asked the blonde worker, who had just pushed aside his shaggy bangs and wiped a bit of sweat off his forehead with a towel around his neck. Despite his superior height, the worker himself wasn’t much older than Slater, which made him wonder as he awaited for the response to his question, how many people my age are involved in helping people out like this… and why was I cooped up doing nothing for so long?

The worker, unaware of Slater’s inner monologue, began describing the machine before them to him, slapping his hand on the chassis.

“This baby right here is the star of the show! This is our little hoverbike we call the Tomcat! Running on pure gasoline, this beauty is is a bona-fide menace out in No Man’s Land. We take folks out to the Mississippi on this thing. It can’t cross the water, but it makes the journey a bit easier for ‘em!” He flashed an authentic smile, showing off his incomplete set of teeth, missing one in the upper left of his mouth.

Now understanding it’s purpose, Slater once again gazed on the sophisticated vehicle, or at least, sophisticated compared to the metal chimera he had seen before. The vehicle itself still had some rusted parts and was anything but symmetrical. That being said, it seemed to still function according to what the worker said. Despite being a ‘bike,’ the vehicle was big enough to hold at least six people, more if you were desperate.

As he examined the machine, the hand of the worker extended into Slater’s line of sight.

“The name’s Theo! What’s yours?”

Slater took the hand, wondering how many handshakes he’d have to do today, and gave a reserved up and down motion to complete the gesture. “Slater.” He was too caught off guard to give off anything more than an automatic response.

“Slater! You know what, wanna help us move this thing out of here? Sounds like a fun experience, right?” Theo began drilling Slater with questions, getting his oil-covered face right up to Slater’s.

“Uh, sure?” Slater took a step back to maintain some level of comfortable distance.

Theo planted his hands on his hips and laughed, “You heard him, boys!” His right hand then navigated unconsciously to a pocket in his stained navy blue jumpsuit, pulling out a small silver box. There were a small collection of buttons on it, but Theo only concerned himself with the largest one in the middle colored a vibrant red. Giving a hearty press, the large door across from the parked bike slowly woke itself and let in the outside air. The cold wind overtook the atmosphere of the warehouse, accompanying it were the cheers of all the workers inside, even those only moving supplies in the back. A small crowd was being drawn around the bike, seemingly supporting Theo’s claim of it being the centerpiece of the operation. The crowd was drawing Slater in until Theo hit him in the back.

“Come on man, climb up on there!” Theo’s face never allowed him muster anything less than a smile.

With the looks of the entire crowd focusing on him after Theo’s command, Slater didn’t want to waste anymore time and put a foot up on the chassis of the Tomcat. He threw himself over the other side and planted himself in the driver’s seat and had his hands rest on the handlebars that extended towards him.

Once he was situated, Theo hopped up and hung off the vehicle’s side. When he found everything in order, Theo raised his hand holding the silver box once again. Workers immediately began pulling out cables from the Tomcat and placing them as far as they could from it. Theo’s head darted around making sure all was in order. As soon as he deemed them as such, he hit another smaller button on the control, causing the bike to raise itself slightly off the ground.

“Now give ‘er some throttle!” The enthusiastic boy pointed out the grips on the handles.

Cautiously, Slater pulled down on the triggers, with the Tomcat pulling forward ever so slightly. Even with the minuscule movement, Slater closed his eyes bracing for a burst of speed.

“Don’t wimp out!” Yelled Slater’s guide, who gave a hard slap to the driver’s back. His eyes being closed, this startled him to the point his hands instinctively clasped down, causing the Tomcat to bolt out of the warehouse immediately.

Two screams rang out from the back of the hoverbike. One was distinctly ecstatic, and the other clearly reflected fear. The Tomcat made it’s way down the straight strip of land leading out of the warehouse. The wind beat into the bodies of the two boys on the bike’s back, and with enough time, the beating eventually had transformed the sound of one excited scream to the sound of two. Albeit, one more reluctant than the other.

The scenery passed by quickly, Slater not even being aware of when he was supposed to stop. However, he had long since lost the rest of his worries to the road behind them. He only remembered the fact they had to stop when the bike did so on it’s own, or so it seemed to Slater. Theo had seen the rendezvous spot for the bike and pulled the emergency break he had hopped on the ride to pull in the first place. He didn’t tell Slater this, of course. Where would be the fun in that?

As the Tomcat came to a complete halt, Theo jumped off and surveyed the surroundings. Slater, meanwhile, was still clinging to the machine.

“You can get off now!” Theo yelled up at his new friend. “After all, we gotta let Mr. Moretti know everything looks good down here!”

 Back in the warehouse, Joseph had returned to the entrance just to be absolutely sure there was nothing left out in front of the building. Now done with the task, he closed the front door behind him and locked it for good measure. That Theo should be done by now was his main thought, until he thought he saw something move in the corner of his eye. Mr. Moretti turned around, but nothing was there where he had been alerted to.

“Maybe my age is getting to me…” He let out a sigh and stroked his beard. However, just to leave no room for doubt, he stepped forward to check through the cracks in the door to check the outside. His eye never got to the door, as he jumped from a distinctive ‘squelch’ sound from underneath him. Mr. Moretti checked his foot, seeing his brown boot had stepped in a crimson liquid which was spilling out from under the door. Not wanting to wait for things to get worse, he turned and ran to alert the others. He took his first few steps, but before he could get any words out, the ruby liquid erupted from the very cracks Joseph had intended to check, morphing into spears which pierced directly through his abdomen.