More Than Imagined

Chapter 2

The train ride back to Site 3 was cramped, but quiet, aside from the light snores Eva puffed against Rhoawyn's cheek. Rhoawyn turned toward the window to get a view of the landscape as they sped through the outskirts of Site 4, but she was met with transparent glass fading into a cinematic display of advertisements for things no one on this train could buy.

Must be passing the Fringe, she thought, as the still image of a Six showing off a fancy-looking box of cereal materialized on the screen. The Apex did its best to hide the happenings of the Fringe from everyone on this side of the dome. They wouldn't want anyone to think the plague that still raged out there could somehow find its way inside their walls, so they shielded their eyes with a bombardment of products. Out of sight, out of mind.

When the screen brightened into a commercial about the Ripe Spring, Rhoawyn decided she would rather see the diseased wasteland of the Fringe than deal with the anxious roil in her stomach.

"The selection is tonight, huh?" Eva yawned, rubbing the soft blur of sleep from her eyes.

"A lot sooner than I expected."

"Having second thoughts?" Eva smirked, smug, "Wouldn't it have been smarter to have those before you applied for the program?"

The train glided to a stop beneath the awning of Site 3's station. They both rose with the rest of the crowd and forced their way into the front-flowing stream of bodies toward the exit.

"For someone with the title 'best friend,' you're really lacking in the moral support department." Rhoawyn huffed.

"You're not exactly one for taking concrete advice."

"That's not true. I listen to your advice all the time."

"Must be why you volunteered to Depart even after I told you it was a terrible idea," Eva snarked, giving Rhoawyn a mock pat on the back. "Prudence becomes you."

Rhoawyn rolled her eyes as she filed through the exit. As she splayed her fingers over the stair rail, the genetic reader scanned the code of her fingertips and collected the amount for the journey. She halted at the end of the stairs, waiting for Eva to step off behind her before defending herself.

"Ok, you got me. But that was only one time," she swore, holding up a finger for emphasis.

Eva flicked it away, laughing at Rhoawyn's dramatic display. "Arguably, the most important time."

The soft trill of her laughter simmered into thoughtful silence. "Doesn't matter now, anyway. Your name is in the system. You can't take it back."

They walked out of the station and down the familiar streets of Site 3. A cluster of flimsily built houses littered both sides of the cracked pavement that passed as a road. It was a far cry from the glass and steel frameworks higher numbers lived in. And even with both of their houses being within walking distance of each other, Eva's sector looked as if it had been decades since the Collection Agency sent a revamp crew to fix things up. It didn't even have working streetlights.

The air was quiet—stale—it felt vacant as it surrounded one of the most populated areas under the entire dome. Rhoawyn hated the silence. It gave her too much room to focus on the ruins Eva called home, so she spoke up.

"I don't want to take it back." The words popped through the silence like over-chewed gum, the sound of them hanging in the air.

"I know." Eva gave in as they round the corner to her street. "Which is why I can't understand my need to convince you otherwise," she admitted, as they reached the toppling shack she's unfortunate enough to live in.