365 DAYS 365 TALES

The Blue Stone

Krishi breathed in the air again and savoured that feeling. Because the air here was.....pure. Not noxious like the ones that they had to breathe in when they were in the outer caves which they had to pass to sneak their way inside the Dome.

"STOP"

The sign board before him read as Krishi saw a group of Androids.

"Androids ahead," Krishi said loud enough to carry to the back of the passenger craft. And then Krishi got out of the stolen craft and stopped. Theirs was the only vehicle on the road. The roads had very little traffic. But considering that there were hardly more than a few thousand inside the Dome, Krishi was not very surprised with that.

"Specify reason for visit." The steel eyes of the android studied Krishi as Krishi had swiped the illegal card which he had purloined from a Upper Level Member the evening before.

"Provision Delivery." Krishi said struggling not to wince, thumbing at the craft behind him. He had been injured in the shoulder real bad yesterday, in another 'incident'. The problem was that the shoulder was throbbing real bad and Krishi could not understand why that was so. Krishi had been injured a lot. As an Outsider, that was almost the norm, which was why it was helpful that he healed fast. Except this injury and of course the scar on his right hand which he had since the time he was little.

But then none of these thoughts actually made its way to his conscious thinking. Because Krishi was studying the Androids. These damned Androids seemed to be upgrades. There was a high chance that they could actually sense that he was injured and continue further scanning of him or the craft that he was driving. Krishi knew that he could not have that. Not now.

If these Androids had been humans, Krishi knew that he would be long done in. His face was a dead giveaway. Any human would have known almost immediately that Krishi could not be an Upper Level Member. He neither had the money to bring himself as part of the locality and according to his educational reports he was supposed to have an 'addled brain' - one that could neither be taught nor learn. Which was why he was abandoned as an Outsider – the one who does not belong inside the Dome, along with thousands of people like him.

And then there was the Dome. The Dome. The one goal of all the Outsiders.

The Outsiders were all forced to live outside the Dome. The Dome which kept the harmful radiation away from the humans after the destruction of the ozone layer.

Right now, inside the Dome, the Uppers hardly wanted to waste any time checking the roads, which was why they created the Androids to man the roads and the Androids were created for one purpose – Shoot any person not having the Upper Level Member Card.

And frankly Krishi was not even surprised. But he was sadly curious. He could not believe why the Uppers who were after all humans just like them, would deny the Outsiders the opportunity to stay inside the Dome. The reasons which the Uppers gave to deny Outsiders from joining the group ranged from abysmally stupid to apparently wrong. But then nobody had the guts to point it out to the Uppers. The Uppers made the law and that was that.

Krishi looked at the Dome again and realized that the shield was a brilliant transparent shade letting the sunlight come in without letting the air come inside. They probably recycled the air inside, which explained why the air was so pure here. The Dome was the only place on earth right now where people could actually roam around in daylight because of the shield and more importantly where any plants could grow.

"All parameters met. Let the craft pass," the Android told Krishi, who nodded and took the card back. He was not sure whether he could use it again. But it made sense to keep it with him. He never knew when he was going to need it again.