The End of the Beginning

The nights passed, with Kalifa returning periodically to discuss Cody’s “impossible” plans. Cody found himself enjoying her company—it reminded him of a friend, something he had always been in short supply of. Going over his idea one more time on the seventh night, he muttered aloud to himself in the darkness, “I should go past the Glass Lands—unforgiving and radioactive. Through Europe, which is a battlefield with the Adventists of the Queen and the Vatican. Posing as a mechanic, and now with some thirteen warriors stalking me… I’ll have to leave the M.U. behind so I don’t cause a scene…”

He considered escaping under the protection of England, as Heather’s family had done, to return to America. But then what? Would they even take him in? He thought long into the night about this very matter—the biggest hole in his plan. And what would he do when he got home?

Suddenly, the door creaked open.

“I’m coming in,” Kalifa declared quietly. Finding Cody in bed, she closed the door behind her and climbed in. Keeping a safe distance at first, she lay there, staring at him and smiling.

“Last night here. How do Americans say it… sup?” she said, jerking her head slightly in his direction.

Cody smiled faintly, his thoughts still consumed by his plan. “Sup… Just thinking about everything.”

“We’ve gone over it a million times, and you’re still nervous?” she asked, crawling closer to rest her head on his chest.

“Kalifa, what are you doing?!” Cody panicked, ready to shove her off with his only good hand. He knew it would be pointless—just like the time she’d sat on his lap and casually restrained him with a wrist hold, refusing to budge no matter how much he protested.

Kalifa grinned, leaning in with a teasing spark in her eyes. “Can’t tattle to my dad this time. Even if you did, it’s your last day here…” Her smile widened as she added slyly, “I’m not so desperate to throw myself at a man against his will—even a man of legend and muscle. Now speak, or my hands might go idle.”

Cody groaned, frustrated and flustered all at once. “I wasn’t thinking how I’d do it,” he admitted, his voice low. “I was thinking about what happens when I do—and why. Is apologizing to my friends really worth all this trouble? And when I do go home, they’ll just shove me back into an M.U. and I’ll die like anyone else…”

He trailed off, his heart racing as he tried to calm himself. Kalifa giggled softly, resting her head on his shoulder with a smile so serene it was disarming. Her eyes began to flutter closed, and just as she drifted off, she murmured sleepily, “You’ll do fine… like a—”

The words faded into silence as Kalifa fell completely asleep. Cody stared at her peaceful expression, feeling a strange sense of comfort he hadn’t experienced in a long time. Before he realized it, sleep overtook him too. He never noticed just how relaxing it was to share a bed with someone else. With that feeling, his thoughts began to blur, and Cody’s mind drifted.

“They installed you into my truck!” Cody shouted at the top of his lungs, yelling at the radio that now housed a more advanced A.I. system.

“Th-th-th-they thought me an ass-ass-ass-asset to you… Loading… Loading… Bible recordings and questions, Now r-r-reading—put your BIG FAT credit card number in and punch HARD those numbers, 1-800-SEX—virus detected… Redownloading…Loading… Bible. Chapter one, verse one. Genesis. ‘In the beginning—’”

Cody woke up with a start, gasping as his surroundings came into focus. Kalifa shyly eyed him from where her head rested on his arm, her cheeks flushed as she tried to meet his gaze. The moonlight cascaded through the room in a soft blue glow, the curtains fluttering gently in the breeze that kissed his sweat-drenched cheeks and bare chest. Lying back on his bed beside Kalifa, he closed his eyes and waited for sleep to return, hoping and praying the strange dream was not a prophetic one.

The next morning, Cody waved goodbye to Kalifa, Tasha, and their sultan, Jarima. Climbing into his “stolen” M.U. long-range vehicle, he took off heading west—toward no man’s land, the Glass Lands.

What awaited him there, he did not know. But he did know he had to repay his friends’ kindness by returning one day to thank them and show their efforts had not been in vain. Looking back, he saw Kalifa still waving until she was too far in the distance to make out. Turning his attention forward, he smiled to himself, thinking how lucky he was to have met such great people.

He never realized, however, that as soon as he crossed into the Glass Zone, his luck was about to change.