Lore

The 51st State

Thera looked around in surprise, the "town" she had found herself in was virtually made up of a large underground dome which by estimation seemed to be the size of two small states put together. She stared at the carts and the conveyer belts, everywhere things seemed to be in motion; there were people in filmy coats walking around the belts and making occasional comments to each other, there was a rotary fan spreading something that looked like a sliver dust over a smaller dome housing things that resembled plants, except for the fact that their shapes and colors were all too unusual to be considered natural. In addition to that, there were iridescent panels lined up on the floor that seemed transparent when she looked straight at them but the moment she turned her head slightly, she could see them generating a strange image that crackled with static, glowed briefly and went out again.

She quickly walked away from their eeriness and nearly bumped into one of the 'coats' she had seen working at the belts. He didn't seem annoyed at all but rather as if he had been expecting to walk into her. Smiling he said, "Hello Thera, we've been expecting you," which besides being cliche and creepy confirmed her suspicions.

Glaring back at him she chose not to answer but rather to wait and see if he was really as patient as he looked. A couple of minutes went by like this before it was broken by a female Coat striding forward and impatiently pulling the man's hand. "Not now Viz, I've been put in charge of showing our guest the Fifty One," he said without taking his eyes off Thera. His words caused her to start, "Whatever's happening here I know my rights. I'm not going anywhere with you until I see the person in charge here." He smiled that infuriating smile again and let out a soft sigh. "I forgot how impetuous outsiders can be," He didn't say it in a degrading way but seemed genuinely worried about her attitude. "Now see here Thera," he began. "We're not your enemies and you're here because we believe that you're more like us than you think. Most of us have gone through hell to get here and those born under this dome understand the world they have here is a haven compared to the one they hear about from the ex-siders. 

Thera put her head in her hands and tried to process what he was saying. As she felt her initial irritation wane, a thought struck her.

"How did I get here?" she blurted out. "I was in my car driving and..." she cringed as she remembered the exact reason she had been in the car by herself. She had been looking for a way out; a bridge, a tree even a nearby gas station would have done the job but instead she had driven through a feral cactus and after assessing her numerous cuts and bruises and eating herself sick, she had passed out from the unfairness of it all.

It had all started with her being fired. She'd hated the job anyway but it was all she had to pay the bills that congregated in her mailbox every Friday and with them, always doing the preaching, were the bills for her e addiction. After that, things had slowly gone downhill for her. She'd carried on taking e but she'd stopped paying her bills. Little by little her stuff had slowly disappeared as she sold them to her supplier who had eventually found out about her situation and taken her off his list of clients. This led to her roaming the streets of New York trying to get a desperate high from the toxic city air. It soon became depressing; walking the cold streets in her ragged clothing, heart bleeding at the sight of the small emaciated figures that huddled under worn card board boxes, looking enviously at the people eating fries and hamburgers. Thera had been forced to walk by; after all she couldn't even have fed herself if she'd wanted to. She'd walked back to the building where her apartment was and knocked on her neighbor's door. The cat lady – she collected strays - had poked her head out and as soon as she'd seen Thera, she'd tried to shoo her away. Swallowing her pride, Thera had told her of her interest in purchasing one of the old woman's cats. This had delighted the cat lady and she had steered Thera towards her living room and had gone off to collect her cats from the balcony. After gathering the cats and making sure they were all accounted for, she had led them back into the living room only to see that Thera had left and the wallet that the old woman had kept on the table was gone.