Skye. First time out and only went because they asked. They thought that it would be good for me and as much as I doubted that, I was wrong, so wrong that it made me want to go on all the searches even though they said that the one in question was a one-off, like not to be expected every time or never. But I understood, it was just getting out, using the legs, taking in the sights, gulping in everything all at once, heart beating a little faster and realizing that they were right. What a trip! All those dystopian movies we watched and there it was, not a Hollywood set! Leaving the protests and getting here was part nightmare, part dreamlike. I was sore, tired and really hungry so I don’t think things registered.

  The city has always been like an enormous breathing, eating, crapping beast that lures you in, devouring your soul, using the best of you to destroy the planet through relentless manic billions of cuts. But now, it hardly breaths a whisper, slumbers through the day awaiting Next, something to occupy it. Us? Why can’t the omniscient Consortium laser it back to swampland!

  She was the first one we saw, perched on top of a demolished building pushed into a twenty by hundred foot scrap heap that they’d turned into a fort or shelter.

  As we got closer, heads appeared in makeshift windows, my first thought being how precarious the whole thing looked. Misty, the eight year old girl, could have been right out of Oliver Twist as could the rest. Their clothes were all tattered and dirty, their exposed skin healthy but the lot of them, sniff, sniff, could have curled the hair of a skunk. They had grim on their faces as if they had done it intentionally, like war paint which we later found out to be peace paint or mud. Someone had brought scissors but it looked like they’d found a pair.

  Sophia from the elder Pod had let them know that a group of friendly visitors would be there on the first nice day so they had been waiting. When we came upon that scene with those faces peering out of those windows, I almost laughed. Perfect, I thought! They could have taken an apartment complex which were all around but decided on this. Being kids during apocalypse. Making the best I guess of what they had and not giving up any childhood merrymaking for the end of the world shit storm.

  But, OMG, it was better than that! So much better and stranger. Just when I began feeling sorry for those kids having to deal with this shit that we did without any thought to what we were leaving behind, a bunch of things happened all at once. A soccer ball rolled up to us, a panel opening up to what looked like Horus’s Eye. I was into the occult for six years so I got that. And, yes, its name was Horus! The fucking thing was scanning us. It said to please stand still and face it while it determined if it would screech at such a high frequency that it would shatter our eardrums. So why don’t we have one of these and how come the old people didn’t know!

  Yep, so after we were all cleared, it finally rolled up to Cuma and let her whisper to it, then rolling towards a tall building nearby. Cats from everywhere began circling us. Okay, I think I’m getting ahead of myself so will start from their beginning. We sat on the ground with some of them, the rest peering out of their windows or doors. Enya began. This is a recording I took. I asked.

  ‘There are fourteen of us from six to eleven. All of us lived here and lost our parents. I mostly talk like an adult because I had the best homeschooling possible because my parents could afford the best and no, no AI, just real people I’d meet wherever I wanted, mostly World Heritage sites and I started early because my parents saw the writing on the wall. And the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and the tenement halls, you know, real walls and not just tenement halls but all halls. And no, we don’t have to play but do play because its in our better interests. We know what happened and have adapted to it with of course things we can’t solve. But we do have our allies, Horus is one that protects us and the cats that come because we feed them and we like their company and name them after the good people who tried for almost a century to warn us of this. My favorite is Rachael who told us early, point blank to stop it or else.

  And there’s one cat called Screamer who screams bloody murder if she smells something she doesn’t like at night when we may be asleep. She’s a hybrid who sits on the roof and protects us. And there’s Jibbo who looks a little frightening but is really gentle and helps us pull the cart loaded with canned food from the warehouse.’

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  While she was talking Jibbo, what looked like half baby hippo and half pig slowly approached us and stopped when some kid whistled from the window.

  Misty spoke from her roost on top of the rubble fort.

  ‘We found her outside one morning sleeping next to six cans of Virginia ham. It thought that it was its family or kids and wanted to protect them but it kept doing the same thing. We were afraid of following it at night so Bree came up to it and kneeled down and looked at Jibbo in the eyes and asked if it could do it during the day so we could follow and see where it was finding them.. It nodded and began walking away. That’s how we found the warehouse for Amazon. Kent got the robot to work so we could get the high stuff and help us bring heavy stuff here.’

  This is where Cuma interrupted.

  ‘So, you’re all ‘V’s.’

  ‘Yes, except for Enya, her decision. We decided to not give up our childhood so have just improved on it. We can be part of the Collective when necessary but have all sworn allegiance to our childhood except I guess super childhood now. I am the designated driver or umm connection to the others but we intend to begin to rotate soon. We just began getting food drops according to our special diet due to a rapid metabolism. We could have kept going with the stuff from the warehouse but the consortium knows we’re ‘V’s and so sends what we need. Yes we like sugar but our chemistry doesn’t and yes we can play the regular things like hide and go seek but with super senses that makes it more exciting.’

  I asked if they had made anything other than their fort and that’s when Misty slid down the slide and began walking towards the river.

  ‘Children our age don’t normally like gardening but with our super spit, our DNA now tied to the Mesh and desiring certain foods, it was a natural. As you can see, there are trees growing through the cracks that will soon offer shade, food and more nature for our senses to inhabit. If you want seeds for a vegetable or fruit, just ask.

  It was a maze that included junk sculpture, handmade signs using twigs like a small patch of twisted pipes rising from the ground with a sign, RARE TWISTED PIPE PLANT. As we got closer to the river there were small domes connected to each other forming a circle, each containing fully mature vegetables.

  The first we entered was a jungle of vining plants with barely a path to move through. We brushed past large ripe tomatoes, plump cherry tomatoes swelled to cracking, two foot long cukes hanging from the cross hatch of poles, glistening with beads of water, six foot teepees of three foot purple string beans with sunflowers growing everywhere, drooping from the weight of their seed heads.

  There were lots of oo’s and ahh’s from us as we went in and out of each. The last one I couldn’t resist. I asked if I could have one of my favorites, ground cherries. Misty said of course take five and they were absolutely succulent sweet!

  And in the center of the ring of domed hoop houses was a fantastical garden out of a child’s fairy tale. We didn’t go in even though they said it was cool. But OMG! First it was a lush overgrown garden with hundreds of beautiful flowers, all sizes, shapes and colors and scents that were intoxicating that made me dizzy, around a small pond with frogs croaking and lily pads. But what had us riveted to the mythic scene were the fairies. There were fairies sitting on large moss covered toad stools and kneeling on lily pads, many in flight, hesitating for a few seconds in front of flower heads.

  I had an out of body experience for a minute, although others who had a similar experience thought it was longer. A few sylphs sprinkled sparling fairy dust on us. I thought, wow, this is a trip, maybe I’ll wake up and find that I’m still in my old bed with the smell of bacon coming from the kitchen downstairs and my baby brother listening to something on his laptop too loud until I opened my eyes and saw just a pond surrounded by flowers. And that scent had disappeared.

  After we got back, we were given large sacks of everything we’d seen. They surprised us again. Misty asked if during the next week we could help them, harvest the crop and plant another. After all, she said, why do you think we sent you, laughing along with the rest of them.

  ‘If you help us with ours. Maybe you could bring some of those Fairies to watch over our garden’, Cuma replied. I think she winked.

  That was two days ago and since all of us have been having incredible dreams that feel real. And ever since my imagination has been on fire! A trip is planned in a few days to help them and go to the warehouse with a wish list. The fairies were probably holograms or holo’s, something that we’ve been seeing more of for some reason. Someone mentioned that the holo’s may not be what we remember them to be but realistic AI creations that have more of a physical presence even a virtual functioning neural network with all the senses. Even flowers, I asked.

  Here’s what my imagination on fire has asked me. What if those old gods and goddesses from legend were holos beamed down by an intelligent race to control the population for some reason! And how much of what we see, now, is real? Like de ja vu all over again!