Red Roses

The third lamp post on the street was flickering on and off. The solar panel bolted to its top was snapped in half, it hadn't collected power all day. It would go out soon, leaving a section of the street in darkness. Nora sat on a bench in the park across the street, waiting.

She tapped her foot anxiously against the metal foot of the bench, the artificial grass beneath her rustling as the bottom of her shoes brushed against it. She looked around the park, it was deserted and she understood why. It was an old model. The trees weren't programmed for seasonal change, stubbornly staying an unnaturally bright green year round. It didn't help that the park itself was located on the poorer side of town; no street attenders, no air regulators. It was safer to stay inside.

Nora adjusted the straps on her oxygen mask just thinking about it, paranoid that it was going to spontaneously fail. There was an old tale that described a time when people would simply wear a cloth or paper mask to prevent the putrid air from entering their lungs. Nora wasn't sure if she believed any of it but times had been different back then.

A thin fizzle of electricity and the sudden dimming of the street ahead drew her away from her thoughts. Nora stood, scanning her surroundings once more to make sure she was truly alone. Satisfied, she walked under the rusted gate that marked the park's entrance and crossed the street. A camera swiveled to attention as she walked past, tracking her movements. She just kept walking as if she didn't notice, as if she was just someone who had been caught out at night and just wanted to get home.

She had just about reached the lightless lamp post, and could now make out the words "out of service" flashing across its control panel. Who knew how long those words would stay there, waiting to be fixed, everyone seemed to have more important things to worry about than a broken light. Her included. The building to the left of the lamp looked as if it had been abandoned for years. Its windows were boarded up, the door missing its handle. She ducked down the alley beside it and under the cover of darkness pulled off the grate of a large air vent and crawled in.

Before she'd gotten more than a few feet in she felt a tugging on her bag. She froze in panic. Sure that someone had somehow seen and followed her and was now trying to pull her out of the vent. She locked on to whatever surface she could, determined to make it as difficult as possible to extract her. She braced for the next pull, eyes squeezed shut, but none came. Confused, she tried again to crawl forward but to no avail. Cautiously peering over her shoulder she realized her bag had snagged on the edge of the vent cover. Gripping it with both hands, she pulled the bag toward her as hard as she could. The sound of ripping fabric echoing in her ears as the vent cover finally released the bag but she didn't care, she'd lingered too long. Clutching the bag to her chest, she hastily started forward, not noticing the trail of rose petals she left behind her as they leaked out of the tear. She certainly didn't notice as the single petal that had been skewered on the sharp corner of the grate, fluttered to the ground outside the vent.

Finally inside the building, Nora stood and wiped the dust off of her hands and knees. She stumbled around for a moment, hand skimming across the wall, searching for the light switch. Finding it, she flipped it, bringing the blaring white light to life, illuminating her lab. Nora smiled taking it in all over again. In one corner her microscope sat where she'd left it, a few roots still sitting under scanning power. On the opposite side of the room, her rose plants lined the wall, hidden behind the light-canceling covers that kept the light of the full-spectrum fluorescent bulbs the plants needed to survive from flooding the building. A simple table occupied the center of the room, an assortment of her equipment scattered across its surface.

Nora walked over to the door, testing it to make sure it was locked and that the towels she'd stuffed underneath it were still in place. Once she was sure they were, she went over to her plants and began pulling off their covers. All she had to do was lightly tug on them and they would automatically retreat into the ceiling. She had started on the left end of the row on purpose because at the right end was her most recent experiment. Today was the day, the day that she would discover if her months of perilous research had paid off.