To Those in the Future, Part 4

Marianne Ackerton had never wanted for anything in her life.

Yes, she had been born in a world a half-step away from death. Pollution clouded the skies, and war brought chaos to nearly every country. Every day brought bad news, and society was on the brink of collapse.

To Marianne, however, life seemed normal – at least, as normal as a daughter of a rich tycoon could be. She had everything she could ever ask for, and while there were some signs of strife she could not avoid noticing, her family did whatever they could to distract her from it.

By some miracle, despite being pampered from a young age, Marianne never became spoiled or entitled. Part of it, ironically enough, was probably due to Paul Ackerton being a chronically negligent father. Because he never had time to parent his daughter himself, her raising was largely left to her tutors, and she had a particularly passionate one who drilled into her the importance of morals and justice. Paul often did scoff at the tutor's long-winded speeches, but never cared enough to actually do anything about it.

The reason why was likely because Marianne was never expected to take much of a role in the running of the Ackertons' many businesses. Most high-ranking positions were already filled by either the many bootlickers insistent on scrambling for anything they could get or one of Paul's many children. This meant she had no need to learn the ruthlessness needed for business acumen.

And so, Marianne grew into a twenty-two year old woman with an outlook on life that was quite different than that of her siblings. She loved nature, and though most of the natural world was ruined, the power of Ackertons managed to wrangle her a small garden for her to work on in her private abode. When they evacuated, her brother Derrick had arranged for the garden to be moved to the shelter, so that she could continue to care for plants even within the shelter.

And that was something Marianne did so happily. She did not mingle with people well, so the shelter did not appeal to her. Instead, she stayed in a little cottage offered to her by the rest of the Ackerton family, where she lived alone and attended to her garden. She saw nobody aside from her family members, and knew little about the goings-on of the shelter otherwise.

For one year, Marianne lived like this. She had little want of anything, and she paid no notice to the world outside her little bubble. But even she had begun to notice that things had gone awry, and that unease had begun to plague the shelter.

The first hint came from her brother, Derrick. He would often visit rarely due to having duties that took him away for days at a time, but recently he had been visitng her quite frequently. Marianne, having noticed this, inquired as to the reason behind the increased visits, but he didn't answer her.

The second hint happened when Marianne found that she had nearly run out of fertilizer. Usually, Derrick would bring whatever she needed, but his recent unease made it clear that she shouldn't rely on him too much. As such, she attempted to make her way to the quartermaster herself. She wrapped herself in a thick cloak to obscure her appearance and walked out into the shelter.

On the surface, everything seemed normal. The residents of the shelter went about their business, taking care of whatever duties they were assigned. However, she could feel the tension in the air. People were muttering to each other under their breath, and others walked through without looking at anyone. The sense of security the shelter once held was lost, and an air of distrust and disdain seemed to set into the area.

It was very clear that something had happened. Unfortunately, she had little way of finding out exactly what that was. Even walking around in a disguise was tough for her to begin with, having never spent much time interacting with others. She certainly didn't have the constitution to go sleuthing.

And so, Marianne continued to live her life was always, even though she knew that something wrong was going on. She must have spent one week like that, until she finally found a way to find out more about the world.

It had happened by chance, almost to the point that it could be considered a miracle. By chance, Marianne decided to look up to the sky while working late in her garden, even though the only sunlight in that room came from the UV lamps pointed squarely at her plants. There, she saw, out of the corner of her eye, a young man sitting up in an alcove a couple of stories above her head. It was only for a moment, but the sight was so striking that she found it was marked indelibly into her mind. He seemed to be talking with someone, and eventually disappeared.

Unfortunately, she had no way of getting to that place from where her cottage was located. It had to be somewhere close, however, so she picked up her cloak and decided to venture out again. She would search as much as she could, though she could only handle being out in the main shelter for an hour at most.

After several days, however, she finally found something curious: a sequence of divots creating a ladder going up a wall. She waited a little bit for the area to clear out, then began climbing up to see where it went. She didn't look it, considering she was quite dainty even for a girl, but she was actually quite fit, due to all the gardening and yard work she did on a daily basis. Because of that, Marianne was able to climb up the ladder, find a ledge hidden in behind the corner, and crawl to the alcove she saw from her villa.

Of course, fate would not be so convenient as to have the man she saw waiting for her when she arrived. Instead, she arrived to an empty little room, with only the ocean to keep her company. Marianne expected this, however, and she had with her a marker with which she could use to write with. Her father probably would have thrown a fit to know that his expensive shelter was essentially being vandalized, but she doubted he would ever find out about this anyway.

The message she left was simple. “I mean no harm, but may I meet with you?” She couldn't specify a date, since she had no idea when he would come here again. At least this way, she could let him decide instead. She decided to wait a week before checking the alcove again. Hopefully, she would get an answer by that time, if she didn't meet the man himself.

Unfortunately, things wouldn't be that simple, but she did get a reply to her question. A little message left on a page torn out of a notebook that simply said, “Ackerton Bar. I'll be there in the morning on the following days. Wear a red scarf. Very few people should be visiting the bar during that time, so we'll have privacy.”

The response gave her a bit of pause. The Ackerton Bar was a place she had never been; after all, it hardly suited her personality. Even if the place would be empty just as the responder had said, going to a place she had never been to before certainly made her nervous. Still, her curiosity won out, so she made up her mind to visit the bar as soon as possible.

Once one of the meeting dates specified had arrived, Marianne put on a red scarf and a long coat and left her cottage once again. This time, she would be walking all the way to the bar, which would take her halfway across the shelter. It was a farther distance than she had ever walked before, but she swallowed her concerns and made her way to her destination.

In her imagination, she imagined the Ackerton Bar to be a seedy shack in the back of an unsavory alley. Instead, of course, it was on a main street in the entertainment plaza, sporting the same pearl white architecture as any other building in the shelter. She took a moment to look around nervously before slipping into the bar as quietly as she could.

Inside, she found a dimly-lit bar with only a few people inside. There was a young man with his hair in a ponytail behind the bar, washing dishes. Another young man sat quietly at the bar. He had a rugged look about him, and though he seemed to be similar in age to the bartender, his unshaved stubble and tired eyes made him look much older.

Marianne swallowed down her nervousness and approached the bar, her red scarf prominently hanging from her neck. The man sitting at the counter noticed her and gave the bartender a subtle nod. The bartender nodded in response and left the room without a word, leaving the two of them alone.

“I'm assuming you're the one who left that message?” the man asked as he took a sip of his drink.

“Er, yes. I noticed you sitting in a rather strange place and wanted to speak to you.”

“You could see me from there?” The man seemed surprised. “Well, them's the breaks. In any case, you wanted to meet me, and here I am. So what do you want?”

“First, we should introduce ourselves. I am Marianne Ackerton.”

The man reacted with some surprise. “What does an Ackerton want to do with me?”

“I just want to know what's been going on. I mostly keep to myself, so I'm unaware of the general goings-on of the people living in the shelter.”

“A walled-off princess, huh?” the man sighed. “Alright. My name is John Malcolm. I'm no one important, though. Just a window-washer.”

“That's fine. As long as you'll tell me about what's been going on in the shelter, that's all that matters.”

John looked at her with a quizzical expression on his face. “You really don't know anything about what's going on?”

Marianne nodded, and John let out another heavy sigh. “Well, fine. Better sit down, though. It's going to be a long story.”