The Portals ( book 1 )

∞11∞ Game of Worlds

They slowed down to a trot after a while. In over an hour, Keira had seen about two brick houses. She asked Zach about it, not just in an attempt to make conversation, but because she was interested, no longer having to shout over the wind. "Most people live in the cities where there are stronger resources." "Okay," she said. That made sense. This deserted desert (LOL) looked like it could barely offer you any water, let alone decent air conditioning and semi-strong Wi-Fi. Not a place Keira would want to live in. Speaking of... "Earlier, Saga said you use Falkans to deliver messages...do you people not have phones or email or, I dunno, Snapchat?"

"We have zonal voice-relay, but none where the camp is," said Zach.

"So basically telephone, right?" Keira said after a moment, "But you call it, what was that?"

"Zonal VR," said Zach his voice wary.

"I'm guessing you don't have VR as in VR," she mumbled. They were sitting half a foot apart, so he heard anyway. "No, and-"

"You don't know what that is?" Keira completed.

Zach turned his head and gave her a pointed look. "What I do know is that you are not making this any more enjoyable by pointing out the defects in the extent of my vocabulary."

"Wow, someone's touchy," Keira rolled her eyes. After a moment she huffed, "Sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

"Didn't you?" he bit out, without turning around.

"Woah okay, so how about we do this, you tell me about your world, and I'll tell you about mine. We can take turns. It'll be like a game." She realized how ridiculous that sounded. Like the entire situation she was in.

Zach let out a sigh. This girl had been talking for how long now? But then again, he didn't like not knowing stuff. And the thought of other places...places no one here had ever even heard of before... an entire other world... "Fine."

"Okay," her voice perked up, "You start. But wait - we can't just play a game without naming it."

Zach did not see how that was relevant but he didn't say anything.

Keira continued, "Let's call it ... the Game of Worlds... kind of like Game of Thrones but less blood... I hope."

Zach cleared his throat.

"Sorry," Keira said sheepishly, "You can start now."

Zach thought for a moment, then said "Auburnazia is a geoid planet and this side of it is all desert. Our rations come from places with more vegetation, on the Southern Part of the planet."

"All desert? Wow, okay, Earth is a geoid planet too and 73% of it is covered with water. The other part is land. The land part is divided into continents, and the continents into countries. For example I live in a country called the United States of America, in a continent called North America. Some parts of Earth are deserts, but there are also forests and icebergs and- God, I sound like my fourth-grade geography teacher-"

"73 per cent?" Zach asked softly, his voice riddled with disbelief.

"What?" Keira asked. She hadn't heard him.

"Your planet is 73% water?" he asked, louder this time.

"Yeahhh...or was it 74? I mean it was the third grade and that teacher was terrible and..."

"You must never have droughts, people must never get thirsty, that much water..." Zach trailed off.

"No, we do have droughts. There are people in parts of our world actually dying of thirst. And besides, a lot of that water is sea water so it's too salty to drink and a lot of it is frozen. And the fraction that we can drink, well a lot is polluted. People in desert countries, like maybe parts of Africa, they don't get nearly as much water as they need."