Menta-Life (Book 1)

Chapter 5: New World 2086

It is quite a trek through the forest. It has no name and is just an unused part of the city limits, or so everyone thinks. There isn't any wildlife out here, only in the desert. A few birds stop by the healthy trees from time to time for a quick rest but there isn't any access to food for them to want to stick around. The sun has already fallen over the horizon so it's just a vast darkness broken by a glowing guide thanks to the city lights poking over the trees.

As I move closer to the city, I see the massive dome through the tops of the trees; every city is a sanctuary protected from the outside world by an impenetrable dome. Gharis City is brightened by electronics for the world to see from miles away. It seems like enough power to fry half of the planet if an accident of any kind were to occur with the main power structure. The dome is thick enough to protect the city from every natural disaster known to man, aside from earthquakes.

Those haven't even really been heard of by most of my generation. With the small world running entirely electronically, it eliminates a lot of natural disasters. An unimportant reason for the dome in Gharis is that the population is mostly upper class, and upper class citizens have to look perfect. No one looks perfect soaked in water, with makeup dripping down their face, or with dust picking up on their cruiser.

I reach the main road leading into the city. The streets are paved the same way they used to be before the war and always remain perfectly paved: not many people drive on the streets anymore since cruisers hover. I start walking along the road towards the city's border. A couple of cruisers pass over me as I stare up at the night sky.

In this day and age, cars have a gravitational switch that allows for high, low, or no gravity; which is why they are now titled "cruisers". The gravity switches range from zero to seventy-five to one-hundred-and-fifty feet high. The specified ranges are safe distances for the gravitational patterns to avoid interruptions and cause an accident between traveling cruisers on different planes. The invention decreased accident rates by ninety-eight percent by allowing more road options for people to reach their destinations in a safe and timely manner.

Cruisers look like curved-surface cars with caps over the sides of the wheels to make them appear to not be there. The wheels only ever touch the pavement when the cruiser is parked. I look ahead and see the city's southern border in front of me. At the checkpoint, cruisers must drop to street level in order to check in and get sterilized before entry to the uncontaminated new world.

There is a smuggler's route that I have always used in order to get past the security checkpoints and I am heading straight there first; it's west of the checkpoint, about a mile into the forest. I used to run with a gang that smuggled things from city to city. There'd be one driver and two passengers, preferably a couple so as to not to raise suspicion. The couple would drop the smuggler off at this specific entry road.

Afterwards, the smuggler would cross through this forest to an underground passage that comes out into an inconspicuous location in the city. That is where I need to get so I can avoid being sent back to prison by the checkpoint guards. While the two checkpoint guards are busy checking the cruiser going in, I make my left turn back into the forest. I keep an eye out for an open area with two stumps sitting side by side.

There is always someone out there by the entrance to keep an eye out for any incoming smugglers so I have to be cautious to not spook the guard. I walk fast so I can get there quickly. When I arrive at the location, I notice that the place isn't guarded. Something fishy is going on. Where is the guard? I step over to the two tree stumps and face the tree where the hidden entrance is, then I hear a snap from a bush behind me.

Someone is out there watching me and a snapped bush usually means that person is coming out. I raise my hands in the air and seven guards, armed with rifles, come out from separate hiding places to greet me. They're all dressed in black with masks like modern day ninjas to blend in with the night forest.