Anna In The Garden

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After her enlightenment, Anna diminished. She could feel all the information, all the memories and images still available to her, only a thought away, but now she had returned to the Real. It felt strange that she understood that, now. She understood so many things, yet she still did not understand her place in this world. Or any world.

Ken had still urged that they leave this place, even though Anna assured her that the imminent threat from the troopers called Trace: Sinister was now over. She had, like the two that attacked them, left all that remained within this sub-Sector unconscious, with a suggestion within their minds to leave the place and forget. It seemed such a simple task to perform.

They reached the secret transport tubes, passing several dead bodies and sleeping forms of troopers along the way. Kontessa had checked every one they met, until it became clear that she couldn't help any of them. Ken opened the hidden doorway to the transport tubes and paused.

"Once we take this transport, we'll be back in the Tether, with everything that entails. The poverty, the wretchedness, the politics. The death. Are you sure you want this?" After they had connected, Ken had seemed different. Calm and controlled. Now she looked guilty.

"It's very different from the world you knew. If the government, or Trace: Sinister, or some lab like this find out about you, they'll hunt you down." Kontessa reached out for Anna's hand, squeezing it. "That's no way to live your life, but I don't know what else you can do."

"There is another place." She stepped into the transport tube car. Familiar and new, she allowed her mind to reach out to the controls. "You'll see."

As soon as Ken and Kontessa joined her in the car, Anna closed the doors and blanked out the windows. She wanted them to see this for the first time as they stepped out. Through all the information that had flowed through her during her euphoria, this one last secret had clutched at her heart. She could feel anticipation rise within her as the car dropped at an intense speed.

In what felt like the blink of an eye, the transport tube car came to rest and Anna could see the confusion in the faces of her friends. The grey haired man had not told them everything, holding on to his secrets to the very last breath, but Anna had saved his thoughts even as his heart had stopped beating.

Stepping out of the car, they found themselves in a grey, concrete room, not unlike the facility now far above their heads. The only feature within the room, a door, sat before them, as though waiting. Anna held out a hand, inviting Ken and Kontessa to pass through the door first. Hesitating, they stepped forward, Ken reaching for the handle.

They stood atop the gentle, tree strewn hill, looking down over the snow covered landscape. Ken, open-mouthed, spun on her heel, sending tufts of snow flying in all directions. She looked up to see the tower of the folly rising up above. Without saying a word, Ken ran around the folly, kicking up snow with her heavy, laceless boots, as she had done that first day she and Anna had met.

This time, she left her bootprints in the snow and Anna waited for her to return instead of chasing her. When she did return, she looked up again, shaking her head, incredulous.

"This is real! It's ... it's your garden, but in the Real!" She traced a hand along the surface of the tower, feeling the texture of the bricks. "But, the transport tube, we can't see it. Some kind of cloaking technology independent of the implants? And the snow. That's real snow. We have localised weather patterns in some Sectors, but never snow."

Kontessa had crouched, picking up two handfuls of snow, lifting them to her nose and breathing in, a look of pure joy on her face. She brushed the snow from her hands, stood, and raced towards the nearest tree, running her hand over the bark, leaning close and smelling that too.