No Future Christmas (3 page)

Mike sat straight up, worried.
Could she?
“Uh, does this
seat have a parachute?”

Shauna laughed.
Mike heard real delight in her laugh.
The
sound flooded him with light and joy.
He stared at her profile and saw a
beautiful strong jaw, a straight, thin nose and one perfectly arched eyebrow.
For a moment he wanted to run his finger over that arch, feel the softness of
the hair that framed those incredible blue eyes.

“Yes, as a matter of fact it does.
And this vehicle does
have an ejection seat.
For emergencies.” Shauna glanced at Mike.
“Don’t worry.
I won’t eject you unless you demean women drivers again.
We don’t tolerate that
in the twenty-second century.
You see, it’s common knowledge among us that we
have the real power.
Too bad men haven’t learned that yet.” She laughed again
as she maneuvered the flying car behind another one.

Mike slouched in the seat, relieved to know he wouldn’t be
tossed out of the car.
He told himself that he wouldn’t upset this woman when
she was flying.
He wouldn’t take that chance.
“How do you know where to fly
these cars?”

“The sky is divided into lanes.
We call them skylanes.
Everyone learns where they are and how to use them.
They work like the lines on
roads in your day.
No one under eighteen can fly without passing a worldwide
test.
Every country has the same rules.
Once you pass you get your sky license.
It’s used just like old driver’s licenses for identification.
It’s linked to a
worldwide database.

“It takes years to get a sky license.
We start when we’re
fourteen.
We take one year to learn the basics on the computer, then graduate
to actual flying lessons.
Then we have three years of test flying.
That’s when
we go with instructors, parents, older siblings who have their license.
It’s
very regulated.
You’ll see signs in windows when a ‘test flyer’ is at the
controls.”

Shauna touched a button and said, “Autopilot.” The car
shifted and Mike heard the “engine” settle into a quiet monotone.
“So, what do
you think of the twenty-second century?”

Chapter Two

Mike didn’t know what to think yet.
He’d had all of five
hours in the future and was still shell-shocked.
He rubbed his stomach feeling
a little queasy from the flying but knew he wouldn’t throw up.
“I’m not sure.
Everything’s so different.
What are the small cities like?”

“What small cities?” Shauna laughed ruefully.
“They’re
pretty much gone.
Most of the world lives in large clumps of skyscrapers.
When
the Fearsome Foursome took over running the world they made it sound like we’d
be living in paradise if we moved closer together.
Said that we’d have easier
lives, more food, more gadgets, more free time.
But they were wrong.
The
population exploded, we’re running out of food and now they won’t let us expand
outside the cities to spread out and breathe.”

“Why are the four CEOs called the Fearsome Foursome?” Mike
asked.

“In your century there were four football players called
that.
The world is still sports crazy.
The four CEOs thought they’d sound more
legit if they took on a legendary moniker like that.
In our century it’s become
a detested name that means corruption, greed and secrecy.”

“So I gathered.” Mike watched the skycar fly automatically.
Smooth turns and gentle bounces rocked him.
He liked the feeling of soaring
above the ground in a personal vehicle.
“I like flying like this.
It’s a lot
better than being cramped into a huge jet with two hundred other people.”

“Yeah, me too.
The airlines all went out of business at the
end of the twenty-first century.
A casualty of sky-high oil prices.
The economy
faltered, big-time.
Car and airplane manufacturers scrambled to come up with a
way to move the population and its merchandise.
You’ll see bigger skycars that
haul freight and on the ground there are monorails that move products within
the cities.
The Middle East oil consortium, OPEC, went bankrupt when the
airlines failed.
Poetic justice some say.”

“Pretty amazing,” Mike said.
His all-night shift was
catching up with him and he felt exhausted.
His arms and legs were heavy, hard
to move and his fingers felt sore and swollen.
He heaved a sigh and put his
head back.
Soon the rocking of the flying car lulled him to sleep.

* * * * *

“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty,” Shauna said.
“We’re here.”

“Wha—” Mike roused from his nap forgetting for a minute
where he was.
He’d been having the most fantastic dream about flying in a— “Oh
my God.
It wasn’t a dream.” He bolted upright.
Running his hands through his
hair he looked down at the ground rushing by, saw other skycars passing them
and marveled at the soaring brown and tan skyscrapers they wove through.
The
sky was a slate gray with flakes of white raining down on them.
Snow.
“Where
are we?”

Shauna pressed some buttons and the skycar slowed.
She moved
the control throttle forward and it began a gradual descent.
“We’ve flown to
Chicago.
We have to ditch this vehicle and get another one.
Every skycar
worldwide has a global positioning system tied into the Global Guardians.
Originally it was for safety but now they use it for their own intrusive
needs.”

“How long have I been sleeping?”

“About thirty minutes.” Shauna glanced at him.
“You look
beat.”

“I am, I worked all night and then met you.” He grinned when
he saw a blush rise up Shauna’s neck and face.
“Ah, you like me.”

“I do not.
I don’t even know you.”

Mike laughed.
He saw Shauna jump.
The blue-white light from
the interior of the skycar lit her arms showing the little hairs standing
straight up.
As they’d left her apartment in New York she’d grabbed a coat but
thrown it into the back of the skycar in her rush to get away.
He reached over
and stroked her arm, smoothing the tiny hairs.
She smelled earthy, sweet.
Static electricity crackled.

He felt burned.

His knee twitched.
He rubbed her wrist and wrapped his
strong fingers around it feeling the erratic pulse beneath the tender skin.
He
had a driving need to touch Shauna.
Why did this woman affect him like this?

Shauna jerked her arm away.
“What’s with you and touching?”
She shifted in her seat, putting as much distance between them as she could.
Mike watched her fiddle with some controls and the skycar slowed some more.
She
maneuvered it into a stream of traffic.

“Every time I touch you I feel it all the way to my toes.
You’re electric, Shauna.” He touched her cheek with his fingers.
“Your skin is
so soft, it glows in the light.” The redness in her face turned maroon.

“Look, Forrester.
I don’t have time for this.
Keep your
hands to yourself.”

Shauna pushed forward on the controls and the skycar slowed.
Mike saw they were a few hundred feet off the ground.
He couldn’t wait to see
how she landed this thing and where she’d put it.
Flying at this altitude gave
him a sense of vertigo.
The buildings rushed by at alarming speeds and blurred
into each other.
“How do you know—”

“Crap.” Shauna pulled back on the stick and pressed a
button.
The skycar shot out of the line of descent and flew up at an alarming
rate.
Mike was slammed back into his seat, his head hitting the headrest.
Horns
and sirens blared at the abrupt maneuver and other skycars slipped sideways and
moved up and down to get out of her way.
“Guardians.
They honed in on our GPS.
I thought I’d put the invisi shield on to hide us.
Crappy old car,” she
complained.

“Pull your vehicle over.
Now,” a voice ordered over a hidden
speaker inside the skycar.

Mike jumped, not expecting to hear voices inside the skycar.

“Not on your life, buddy,” Shauna muttered.
“Hold on, Mike,
we’re leaving Chicago.” She pressed a series of buttons and the skycar flew up
like a rocket.
The Global Guardians followed but Shauna flew like she’d had
aerobatic lessons.

Mike’s stomach lurched into his throat.
Goddamnit, he
thought.
Not again.
What’s with these supersonic maneuvers?
First elevators,
now flying cars.
He felt the bile rising and ordered himself not to throw up.
He choked back the sour taste and held his breath.
His face felt as if it’d
been stretched flat.
When Shauna leveled out she punched more buttons and the
vehicle raced through the gray sky.

“Skycar 43,000, you are under arrest for disobeying a direct
order to pull over,” the Global Guardians pursuing them said over the internal
speaker.
“Land your vehicle now or we will have to take direct action.”

Mike choked back the bile and wished for some cool water.
He
released his breath slowly.
Too fast and he just might toss his cookies again.
Shauna glanced at him, flipped a switch and a glove compartment type of storage
area opened.
An old-fashioned plastic bottle of water lay on its side and Mike
gratefully grabbed it.
He gulped a few swallows and felt better.
“Thank you.”
After wiping his mouth with a napkin made of some strange material that whisked
away the moisture, dried and went back to its original shape, he looked at
Shauna.
A muscle jumped in her jaw, her mouth was set in a firm line and her
eyes were narrowed to slits.
“What happens if we pull over?”

“We’re shot with modern-day tasers, which hurt like hell,
beaten to a bloody pulp, taken to some dark cell deep in the bowels of a
nonexistent jail and left to die.”

“Oh.
I vote for running for our lives.”

Shauna laughed.
“Most men wouldn’t find humor in a tough
situation.”

“I’m not most men,” Mike said.
“Although I feel pretty
average right now with my stomach threatening to erupt at any second like Mount
Vesuvius.”

Shauna glanced at her rearview mirror.
“The Guardians are
gaining.
There’s a barf bag in the glove box.
Better grab it.
We’re in for a
bumpy ride.” She flew the skycar into open space and pushed the throttles all
the way forward.
“Sorry for this.”

“For what?”

“This.” She pushed a button and a clanging sounded inside
the vehicle.
The skycar shot forward and upward at supersonic speed.

“Warning.
Warning.
Excess speed.
Slow the vehicle,” a
mechanical voice droned.

The car thrust forward with such alarming speed that Mike
was pinned to the back of his seat again.
“Oh, God.” Mike buried his face in
the bag and lost the contents of his stomach.
Some of the vomit missed and
sprayed onto his shirt.
He was surprised he had anything left to throw up.

Shauna flew erratically.
She dodged and ducked, slowed and
sped up.
“Thank goodness I took that high-speed racing course last year.
That
was a kick.”

“Yeah, sure.” Mike closed his eyes and prayed for
deliverance.

After a few minutes to settle his stomach, Mike took the
funny napkin, poured water from the bottle on it and cleaned himself up the
best he could.
When he finished, the napkin wobbled and shifted in his hand
then was clean and dry.

“We’re losing them!” Shauna used her side, rear and internal
mirrors and watched her instruments.
She made a sharp U-turn and sped by the
astonished Global Guardians.
Then she dived the skycar and flew it just above
the ground.
“It’s slower down here but safer.
Even today radar can’t track us
because of the high volume of traffic.”

“Great,” Mike said.
He held on to the bars placed at the top
of the window.

“We still have the GPS to worry about.” Shauna abruptly
landed the skycar.
She pulled into a decrepit parking garage and parked.
“Let’s
get out of here.” They grabbed their belongings and lost themselves among the
people wandering the streets.
She spotted an unused hover scooter and hopped
on.
“Come on, Forrester get behind me.”

“This is the second time you’ve taken a scooter.
Isn’t this
stealing?” Mike asked.

“No.
Every hover scooter is up for grabs, literally.
They’re
provided by the four Corporations free to the masses so we can get around.
Anyone can take them and leave them at another hover scooter drop-off point.”

“Oh.
Where are we going?”

“I know someone who’ll let us use his apartment for a short
while.
He’s out of town right now.” She drove to a beige skyscraper and parked
the hover scooter at the drop-off point in front of the building.
They took the
elevator to the fiftieth floor.

As they rode up Mike said, “Thank goodness.
A normal
elevator.
I’m not sure I’m ready for the pace of this time.”

Shauna studied his appearance.
Mike was embarrassed.
His
clothes were dirty and he smelled.
He’d always prided himself on his
cleanliness and twice he’d thrown up in the space of a few hours.

“Another shower is in store for you.
George is about your
size.
We’ll borrow some clothes, leave a pre-paid card and a note.
He’ll be
fine with it.”

“Whose clothes did I ruin?”

“My father’s.”

Mike stopped in his tracks.
“The same one who was dead but
now isn’t?”

“The very same.” A pinched look crossed Shauna’s face.
“God,
I hope they’re really alive, I don’t think I can grieve for them again.”

They reached the apartment.
Shauna said, “Door open, 5406.”
The door silently slid open and Mike whistled.

“Wow, neat trick.”

“Most doors are automatic or voice-activated.
We have codes
to lock them.” She threw a duffle bag on an entry table and said, “Heat on,
temp seventy-five degrees.”

A whoosh sounded and Mike felt warmth surround him.
“This is
amazing.
Is it central heat?”