One Night

People don't consume alcohol in public anymore. Well, except for them.

A murmur ran through the gyrating crowds in the night club. Heads swiveled toward the doors. Women leaned against the metal railing of the catwalk lounge overhead. The movements of the dancers slowed as the cluster of Naked Faces sauntered across the main floor to a private alcove in the back.

I peered at them out of the corner of my eye as they passed behind me. My elbows propped on the bar, which was only a fixture at night clubs due to tradition and Naked Faces liking to flaunt their freedom by buying the overpriced drinks, I followed their path as they turned the corner and shouldered through the curtain to one of the rooms that were inset along the back wall.

They were beautiful. They were confident and unobscured, shoulders back and heads high. They moved with an aura of grace and strength that reminded me of the vids of wolf packs I had seen in history class. I snorted into my Oris. Arrogant bastards.

"Did you see them?" A familiar, breathy voice rasped in my ear.

I pivoted on my stool, a hand jerking up to cover my ear. "Mel! You do realize how creepy and gross that is, right?"

She put her hands up, palms toward me. "Sorry, sorry!" Melody slid onto the stool next to me, our knees knocking as she leaned forward. "You did see them though?"

"Yes, I saw them. Everyone saw them. They're impossible to miss."

Mel sighed and fanned her face, even though her Visor was airtight. It covered her entire face from hairline to throat and clamped over her ears and around her jaw. The frame was made out of pliable silicone, like my Oris, and the face plate was a thin, curved sheet of glass. The main difference between an Oris and a Visor is that Orises only cover the mouth and nose. Their basic functions are the same: filter the air before it goes inside your body. Visors are a bit more intense though. They filter the air before it even touches eyes or ears as well. Everyone in the night club wore one or the other.

Mel's Visor was the MirrorX edition, which were very expensive. Its technology mapped the planes and color tones of her face then reflected those readings on the outside of the Visor, essentially allowing others to look through the mask to her real face underneath. You could still tell that the Visor was there, but it only minimally obstructed her appearance.

"I wish I could talk to one of them just for a minute," Melody said, still fanning. Her cheeks were flushed from dancing. "Hell, I just want to say hello."

I scoffed. "That will never happen. It's below them to even look at one of us."

"Speak for yourself, Calyx." She gestured with a flick of her fingers to her long, lanky body in a turquoise, sequined tube dress. She had the pale gold hair to go with it. "I know I'm fine."

"The Immune are conceited asses who flaunt their freedom." I rolled my eyes at her. "They don't deserve your attention."

Her eyes went wide. "Wow, someone's tense tonight. Is your Oris pinching you?" She reached over and tapped the molded plastic and silicone covering my cheek. The gills in my Oris whirred as they sensed foreign particles.

"Hey!" I swatted her hand away.

Mel laughed and pushed away from the bar. "Man, I wish I were drunk right now. It would be so much fun." She grabbed my wrist and hauled me to my feet. "Come dance with me! The bar doesn't need you to hold it up."

I groaned but smiled behind my mask. Melody was such an honest, live-in-the-moment kind of person. She would never understand that my secret expressions underneath the matte black material of my Oris were another kind of freedom.

I let her pull me to the center of the crowd beneath the flashing strobe lights and pulsing lasers. The music pounded through the floor and walls, vibrating my bones and tempting my muscles with its rhythm. I forgot about the Naked Faces enjoying their libations just a few yards away and let the beat carry me into a blissful kind of exhaustion.

Mel tapped me on the shoulder. She swayed in close and held up her arm in front of me. The face of her watch flashed neon pink inside its khaki colored rubber casing. The digital numbers read 12:17. I nodded and we swam back through the clustered dancers.

"Phew." Melody scrubbed the back of her neck, lifting up her long hair, when we reached the entrance. "Once you get going you really can dance. I couldn't keep up anymore!"

I laughed and pushed through the door into the balmy night air. The ends of my dark hair were wet and clumpy with sweat where it brushed over the tops of my shoulders. I scooped it back and wrung out a few drops of excess moisture. A cool breeze licked over our fevered skin and we sighed as if on cue.

Melody looped her arm through mine. "If I didn't have a watch, we would be here all night, huh? You forget about the rest of the world when there's a good beat."

The heat in my cheeks flared. "Yeah. That's why I don't dance. Once I start, I can't stop."

"It's so much fun when you dance, though!" Melody's heels clicked on the dark concrete sidewalk. "It's infectious. You light up the whole room."

"It's embarrassing." I shook my head as we turned the corner and entered the alleyway that ran alongside the nightclub. "A mechanic from Genesis Southside shouldn't know how to dance at all."

Mel squeezed my arm with her elbow. "That's not true! Dancing used to be a way of life. Remember the history vids about people who danced professionally?" She let go and stepped in front of me so that she was walking backwards. "Ballet, Hip Hop, Salsa…I can't think of any other names right now, but I can see you doing them all!"

"How are you walking backwards in heels right now? Don't you feel like you're going to face plant?"

"It's called practice." She pointed a finger at the tip of my nose. "Don't change the subject! You should dance whenever the mood strikes you. Don't worry about what other people might think. If it makes you happy then you should let loose and enjoy it."

The grungy metal back door of the night club banged open.

"Mel, look out!" I grabbed her hand that was still poised in front of my face and pulled her tight against me.

A man tumbled through the open door into the ally seconds later, just missing the two of us by a hair. He hit the pavement hard with a shout of pain and rolled into the opposite wall. When he sat up against the cinderblocks, there was a thin crack across the faceplate of his Visor. I took a step back, taking Mel with me.

"We should get out of here," I whispered.

"What's happening? It'll take forever to get home if we go another way." She turned to follow my line of sight.

Then they appeared.