Immortalys

Chapter Ten: A Tour of the City

It was like watching a movie, Willow decided. The whole place was just too crazy to be true.

She and Friction had first wandered down the open main road which led from the Capitol, titled "Achernar Way," which provided an unimpeded view of the flat, gleaming lake and the glittering tops of all of the buildings spread out down the hillside. The wind blew into Willow's face and lifted her hair around her shoulders as she stared down at all of the strange architecture; some buildings were, in fact, made of glass, just like Willow had been told, but it was still way different than she had ever imagined. The tallest buildings, nearly 50 or more storeys in height, were nearer the Capitol, and the closer they were to the lake the shorter they were; this effective balance seemed to draw the eye into the center of the city, right to the Capitol building.

The whole city was, in one word, spotless. It was hard for Willow to grasp how this many people could keep a city so clean. The very streets shimmered with the winter sunlight, and although a small breeze blew Willow's and Friction's hair around, there was no garbage stirred up on the walkways, no rubbish visible anywhere. Willow became even more incredulous when she noticed that there were no rubbish bins in sight either. What do these people do with their trash? she wondered darkly.

As she and Friction descended deeper into the city, many people poked their heads out of doorways or windows with gleeful faces, and many more began to congregate on the streets, smiling and waving at Friction and Willow. The two of them stared around awkwardly, gave a couple of wimpy waves in return, and continued walking forward into the maze of streets.

Most of the buildings were right up next to the roads, but placed elegantly so that there was more than enough room for people to walk and to drive in hoards in front of them. Willow noticed that the only thing separating the pedestrian lanes from the vehicle lanes was a different color of stone on the shoulders of the road; otherwise, people walked and others drove, and all kept their eyes carefully on the road in front of them. Willow was also surprised to see that the very roads were oriented opposite from Canadian roads; they were more like the streets found in the United Kingdom.

"Check out this building," Friction said hoarsely, pointing up to a tall, glistening glass building on the right-hand side of the road.

Willow looked up to see the sun glittering off at slightly different angles on each pane of glass, each one carefully tiled into the paraboloid-shaped building. Near the top, one of the panes was open, and two young people wearing plum-colored jackets were peering out and smiling at them. This building looked to be a clothing shop; Willow could plainly see all of the racks and shelves inside, laid with silken fabrics and strange futuristic styles of clothes. The entrance to this shop was raised a flight of stairs from the road, like most of the buildings were, and there was an adjacent area enclosed by clean marble walls that Willow realized must be a parking lot. Upon the tops of the walls, ivy hung down with flowers blooming on it, and nicely trimmed trees lined the entrance to the clothing shop.

Then Willow raised an eyebrow. "Friction," she said, "check out all these plants! I thought it was December."

"Me too," Friction replied, "and I thought it was December in the tundra of the Northwest Territories."

Willow slowly shook her head. Somehow, Immortalys had made itself its own little oasis in the desert of northern Canada. Plants, apparently, were happy here all year round.

So are the people, Willow said to herself, as a large group of youth bundled around the large window inside a candy shop to watch her and Friction pass by. They all had huge smiles on their faces, nice clothes, respectable hairstyles, and their hands full of sweets. Willow then noticed another fair-sized group of people headed toward them from the opposite direction: about ten children who looked between the ages 7 and 8 were following a tall woman who was dressed in a slate-grey officer's uniform; all of them were whispering with each other and pointing at Willow and Friction.