"Desert chapter 3" by Natalie Beth Myers

Natasha’s eyes looked around in wonder. Everything in this city was spotless. There was no trash on the streets or in the gutters. Not even a beggar was in sight, and everyone wore an extravagant outfit that should cost a couple hundred dollars by Natasha’s opinion. From what she could hear, no one said a harsh or cruel word to anyone else. Only laughter and kind words were heard.

Kayara motioned that Natasha follow closely. She hurried foreword to be at the fairy’s side, and then asked her, “Is there anyone like me? A human?”

Kayara shook her head, “No. You are the first.”

Natasha then asked, “Is there anyone else on this world with dark skin like mine?”

A pause, and then, “No.”

A few people stopped what they were doing to stare at the strange human girl, following her with keen eyes. There were children playing a game that looked almost exactly like dodge ball, except that the children were throwing something box-like. With the resistance from the cube ball, they had to throw it harder than a normal ball. As she and Kayara passed, every single one of them stopped to stare at her.

Natasha slowed behind her for a second to get a better look at them all. As Natasha’s eyes strayed to a group of quadruplets, she saw them all stick their tongues out at her in unison. Natasha’s fixed them with a stare that just emanated evil. ‘The Stare’ as some liked to call it. All the boys who saw it flinched. She hurried on ahead to catch up with Kayara, self-consciously feeling their eyes watching her.

She headed into a building, and Natasha followed hesitantly. Kayara looked back at her, and asked, “Is something wrong?”

Natasha was tempted to say, “Everything is wrong, idiot!” but she held her tongue, and shook her head. “No,” she said, “Everything is fine.”

The building they entered was huge. It twice the size of the Empire State Building! Natasha thought in wonder.

Kayara opened a set of glass doors, letting Natasha enter first. Her jaw dropped. This lobby was enormous. Everything about it was large. Large tiles covered the floor, stretching from wall to wall. The front desk was one of the only smaller things in the room, and an elf sat there reading something. Off to the side, small concrete bars, coming up out of the ground, stood, only a small panel on each one. Natasha looked up to see a massive statue (roughly around 100 feet tall) made of iron hanging from seemed out of thin air.

She asked Kayara, “How does it do that? And who is it?”

“Super magnets suspend it and keep it in place,” she said, “and that is Dr. Benjamin Nickels.”

Natasha took in more of the statue’s features. The man, Dr. Benjamin Nickels, looked to be an older man with a beard and glasses. He wore a lab coat, holding a clipboard in his hand. Natasha gasped. He’s human! she thought.

She looked back at Kayara, “But he’s human. How can that be?”

“I will explain,” the fairy said, “But for now…follow me.”

Natasha followed her across the lobby, passing the front desk. The elf there nodded his head at Kayara, but then just stared at Natasha. She hurried past, catching up with Kayara, and asked quietly, “Where are we going?”

“We are going to see Dr. Trisan Gates. He is going to give you a check-up.”

“But, in my world, I had just went to the doctor’s office,” Natasha said quietly, “I’ve had enough shots.”

“Natasha,” Kayara said with a laugh, “We haven’t used needles for shots in at least seventy years. Besides, there is more diseases you need to worry about here than in your world.”

Natasha took this into consideration, “What is he going to do?”

“He is just going to look at you. Make sure you are all right.”

Kayara walked off to the side, toward the concrete bars, and Natasha followed. Kayara picked the nearest one, placing her hand on the panel, and said, “Up to room 2950. Dr. Trisan Gates. Two passengers.”

One of the tiles suddenly rose up about five inches off the ground, hovering expectantly. Kayara stepped up on top, looking at Natasha. She just stood there, still petrified about what was happening. “Come, Natasha,” she said with a smile, “Don’t worry. It is perfectly safe.”

Natasha gulped, and stepped up with her. The tile suddenly started moving up, and Natasha gripped Kayara’s hand tightly. The fairy chuckled, “This is also controlled by super magnets.”

“If you are a fairy and can fly,” the human girl asked, “why do you use these?”

“This building is mainly a super magnet itself, Natasha,” she said, “Our wings use much blood to fly, so the magnet pulls down on the iron coming to our wings, making us unable to fly. Did I explain that right?”

“It cuts off the circulation in your wings?”

“Yes,” Kayara said, and then said quickly, “Don’t worry. The blood always comes back to the wings once we leave the building.”

“Oh.”

Natasha watched as the flew up farther, the large statue of Dr. Benjamin Nickels far below them. The tile turned right gently, bringing them to a door. The tile attached itself to the wall, finishing with a hiss and a small clicking sound. Kayara opened the door, and Natasha hurried in.

The room looked like an ordinary doctor’s office: white walls, a couple of stools, a desk, a sink, and counters. Small beds were off to the side, and some bazaar looking instruments beside them.

An elf sat at the desk, writing something down on a piece of paper, brown hair covering his eyes. The desk was cluttered with papers and pens, messily placed in files or stacks. He looked up as the entered.

“Ah, Lady Kayara,” he said, standing, “Please, come in.”

Kayara laughed, “Dr. Gates, you are still using paper. Hardly anyone has used paper for almost fifty years.”

Dr. Gates smiled, “Paper, in my opinion, is still a very efficient way of keeping track of things.”

Kayara gestured to his desk, “This is efficient? How can you keep track of anything here?”

He rolled his eyes, “Yes, yes. Whatever, Kayara. Now, is this the human girl?” Dr. Gates looked at Natasha with a smile, “She is a pretty girl. And just look at that skin! It is so dark!”

Natasha looked at herself. She had been told by her mother many times before that she had lighter skin than usual. It was a little strange to hear that she had really dark skin. She shrugged mentally.

Kayara was saying, “Yes. Her name is Natasha, and I brought her from Earth.”

“Earth?” Dr. Gates gasped, staring at Kayara in shock, “Well? Have you told her? And why on Elinia did you bring her here?”

Kayara sighed, “Will you help me explain once you are finished looking her over?”

The doctor sighed as well, “Fine. But it isn’t going to be pretty.” His face brightened up, “I can’t even believe it! An actually human! I am probably the only person on all of Elinia to do it!”

“Hurry, Trisan. I wish to get this over with.”

He nodded, and looked back at Natasha. “Please come here so I can get a better look at you,” he said with a kind smile.

Natasha hesitated. Should I? Her feet took a few steps haltingly, but she then walked forward. The doctor looked her over from head to foot. He felt her skin, rubbing his hand across her face saying, “Hm. It is very smooth. How old are you?”

“Fourteen, sir.”

He looked at Kayara, “No zits. Didn’t humans get zits?”

“Only humans with whiter skin, Trisan.”

“Oh, yes. That’s right.”

He walked away from Natasha saying, “Please sit down on one of the stools.”

Natasha obeyed, waiting with a pit in her stomach to see what he was about to do. Dr. Gates came back with a strange looking device that hummed as he turned it on. He held it in front of him, pointing it directly at her, muttering something under his breath. After a minute or so, he pulled out another strange device. Red liquid was in a small container attached to it, and Natasha was reminded of blood.

“What is that?” she asked.

“Oh,” he seemed a little surprised, and then smiled, “I’m sorry. I forgot you don’t really know anything about what is going on. Well, this is something called nethosis. It has many vitamins and minerals that are needed that you don’t have a lot of right now. This injection will make sure you have enough.”

Natasha gave a little frightened glance at it. Dr. Gates gave Kayara a questioning glance, and she replied, “They still use needles from where she is.”

The elven doctor clicked his tongue, “I never much liked the thought of needles. Don’t worry, Natasha. This is completely painless. No needles. Now, if you will just arc your head this way.” He gently pushed her head to the right, revealing more of her dark neck. He placed the device against the skin, pressing down on a button. The red liquid was sucked in, and the container was soon empty.

Natasha felt her neck as the doctor straightened, “Now, did that hurt, Natasha?”

“No,” she said.

“Good.”

“What do you call those things? Those shot things?”

“Oh, we call these dispensers,” Dr. Gates said, and then held up another thing that looked almost exactly like the dispenser, “And this is an extractor. This will take out something in your system so we can study and analyze it. Like the dispenser, it doesn’t hurt.”

He held the extractor up to her neck, and pushed down on the button. Natasha felt a slight suction feeling, watching as some of her blood slithered into the container attached to it. Dr. Gates looked at it curiously, “Hm. Her blood is darker than our own, Kayara. Interesting.”

The fairy nodded. Trisan brought out an otoscope, placing it in her ear. Natasha was thankful that she had cleaned her ears the other day when she was back home. It looked like any otoscope that human doctors had used on her own world to check her ears, so she wasn’t asking any questions.

Dr. Gates’ fingers passed over her ears. “It is just so odd to see human ears,” he muttered to Kayara, “I mean, I have only seen them in pictures in our his-”

“Quiet, Trisan,” Kayara said quickly, “After you are done.”

Natasha’s mind was buzzing with questions, and there was a squirming in her stomach to find out the answers. Dr. Gates was soon checking her eyes and mouth, and then watched her reflexes. His eyebrows furrowed. “Her reflexes are slow,” he said. He then looked at Kayara, “Is that just because she is human?”

She nodded, “You know the story, Trisan. Now it is time she heard it.”

Trisan looked at her sadly, and then at Natasha. “This is going to be a bigger shock than you realize,” he muttered to her.

Kayara stood beside her, and bent down until they were eyelevel. She said quietly, “Natasha…what world is this?”

“This is…Elinia. Right? That is the name of this world?”

“Natasha,” she said quietly, “You have never left Earth.”

“What?” Natasha blurted out, even more confused then before, “What the heck are you talking about?”

Dr. Gates said, “You have only been brought into the future, Natasha. This is your peoples future.”

“But you are elves and fairies!” she exclaimed, “How can any of you be from Earth. And this world is a desert! If this is Earth, are we over the Sahara desert or some place like that?”

Kayara paused, “We are actually over the remains of Montreal, Canada.”

“That’s…that’s impossible,” she breathed, “Montreal is not in a desert.” She was shaking her head slowly, “You can’t…you can’t be from Earth. This can’t be Earth. It just can’t be.”

Dr. Gates looked down at her sadly, “This is Earth, Natasha. All that remains of it anyway.”

“What are you?” Natasha asked the two of them, “What the heck are you?!”

Kayara said, “Our ancestors were humans, Natasha. In a way, we are humans.”

“Just listen before you say anything,” Dr. Gates said before Natasha could say anything, “We are humans, Natasha. But we are augments. A more advanced race of humans.”