Utopia

Part 9

9.

   Air gushes through my lungs, sating the burn in my chest. Free of the stale, recycled tang from the clip, the breath is cool and sweet on my tongue. Fresh. This is the taste of death.

   Tears well in my eyes, for no other reason than the bittersweet tragedy of it all. I finally made it just in time for everything to be ripped away. I wonder how long it’ll take for the symptoms to kick in – for the suffering to begin.

   A girl rushes to my side, the same one from earlier in the Lab. She smiles at me, smiles as if there is nothing wrong, as if we are old friends. Then she tugs of my jacket and shoves a mask around my face. There is a sharp pain on my wrist that shoots all the way up my arm. I stagger back.

   “Don’t panic, it’s just a bracelet,” The girl says, her face flushes. “Should’ve explained that before. Sorry. Sorry uh, follow me.”

   She takes hold of my hand and tugs, leading me after her before I can even protest. I risk a glance behind me, a group of Outsiders crowds our entrance point, some watching my retreat but most are fussing around Kai. His eyes catch mine and he doesn’t look away.

   “Sim will know. Yeah, he’ll have something for definite,” the girl mutters, drawing my attention from his heated gaze.

   She pulls harder, sending me stumbling a few paces before I right myself. “Sorry. Sorry. Better to get you there soon as, I think. Better not to give it a chance to spread but don’t worry, you might not even have contracted it. Not every breath does, you know.”

   The girl is short, smaller than me by at least four inches though she seems bigger somehow. Something in the way she walks, tall as if she’s walked the world. As if she’s seen and experienced things I could only dream of. I suppose, in some ways, she has.

   Like the rest, her skin is browned, kissed and caressed by days spent in sunlight. Her clothes are strange, roughly cut fabrics, so baggy they fall off her shoulders. She’s belted her trousers with a long vine. I like her, I decide. Even despite her ceaseless babble.

   “Diina, should have said that first shouldn’t I? My name is Diina” She looks back to shoot me a quick smile.

   “Lyra, I’m-”

   “- A Fielder, we know – but we’ll get to that later.” She cuts me off. I was going to say I’m pleased to meet you but hers seems like the better introduction. She’s an Outsider and I’m a Fielder – doesn’t matter that I’ve left because that’s all I’ll ever be to them.

   Diina leads me even further away from the jewelled greenery of the forest until the grass gives way to a long black road. It’s a street - not unlike the one in the Field. The road isn’t bumpy or cobbled but instead a slick ribbon of black painted with straight white lines. There are no candy-striped awnings or extravagant window displays but the buildings stand in neat filed lines on either side of the road. It’s a real, Outside Street!

   Most of the windows are dark, their occupants already tucked away in bed – much like I would be back home - though some windows still blaze, spilling orange light out into the darkness. A small distance away, right in the middle of the road, a giant fire spits out sparks and licks at the air while a few Outsiders recline around it, welcoming its gentle heat.

   For the first time I have the chance to scope the sky, unrestricted by a coat of leaves and branches. I’ve only even seen the night sky once before, when I was twelve and snick out of my room well past lights out and made my way into the Garden. Even then, the skylight only allowed a tiny sliver of the magnificent sight before me. The moon, a small silver crescent hangs proud in the black velvet of sky as if placed there by a God. And the stars, tiny sequins of sparkling light shining across like a sprinkling of fairy-dust. Magic.