CHAPTER 6

Outsiders, the people rejected by the inhabitants of the cities.

"Who are you? What are your intentions?" Demanded the dark-skinned man, pointing out Caleb with the spear in a metallic voice provoked by the breather.

"Caleb? What's going on?" Ariadne asked from the other side of the room. A woman was also pointing at her with a machete.

"Answer the question!" The man urged.

"We're not looking for trouble," Caleb said calmly, raising his hands. "We're runaways, we're running away from Genesis."

"Is that true?"

"Yes, we both are."

"How do we know you're not spies?"

It was obvious that these people had serious trust problems. Caleb would probably do so if he were constantly exposed to the dangers of such a corrupted world.

He knew what he had to do to gain their trust. Slowly, under the silent gaze of the outsiders, he put his hand in the front pocket of his backpack and withdrew the voyager.

"This is a voyager. It's the only medium to find Icarus Abbott, 'The Engineer.' He's the one who can fix this world and get things back to normal. Mayor Solomon Carmichael chased us because of it and forced us to run away."

The facial expression of the unmistakable leader faded, as did that of his partners.

"We should use this artifact tonight, it's our only chance to find it. I swear that this information is as true as my name Caleb A. Smart"

The crowd exchanged glances with each other and whispered something as if they were deciding whether to believe what Caleb had told them or arrest them. Finally, a woman–probably the second in command–approached the leader and said something in his ear. He nodded and made a gesture to get Caleb and Ariadne up.

"You two are coming with us," he commanded them.

None of them made the slightest attempt to contradict him or to ask where they were taking them. Gazelles, after all, must recognize when they are surrounded by lions.

The group took them to a nearby camp. To the surprise of the teenagers, there were over ten houses on the small site, and there was a group of people of all ages: children, adolescents, adults, older adults, and even babies.

Another thing he immediately noticed was that these outsiders wore more ragged clothing than the people in the city. Regarding social classes, there was no distinction behind the walls; the entire population lived well and had enough resources to survive. Caleb had never thought that perhaps this was because they had left all the poor people out.

Everyone turned around to see their arrival, and they didn't give them much of a welcome glance precisely. Caleb realized that people were afraid of them. Could he blame them?

Finally, they entered an old building located in an extreme corner of the place that may have been a stall in the past. Inside, a much larger crowd gathered, and those who worked outside quickly followed the prisoners as if they were attending a trial.

After acknowledging their presence, the villagers made way and formed a path for them to the back of the building, at the time they were talking to each other without bothering to lower their voices.

Finally, Caleb and Ariadne found themselves facing a middle-aged woman, whose clothes were more stylish than those of the other inhabitants, but still uglier than those of the citizens of Genesis. Obviously, she was the leader of that community.

The man who captured the duo stepped in to say something in her ear before she nodded, and he stood silently beside her. The woman delivered a swift look at them and finally spoke.

"Welcome, children of Genesis. My name is Joanne Lynch, and I am the head of this society. Michael here tells me that you are on a special quest. Can you confirm that?" She asked gently yet firmly.

Caleb watched Ariadne and realized that she was too scared to talk, so he took on the role of speaker again.

"Yes, Madame, that's right. We're looking for 'The Engineer,' and the only way to find him is to activate this gadget tonight at the full moon," he explained, showing her the ball and projecting the message by pressing the button on the pole.

Further conversation ensued behind them but stopped when the woman raised her hand.

"I haven't heard Icarus's nickname for a long time," she replied, "and I didn't realize that people in Genesis still remember him."

"They do," Ariadne finally said, "but they ignore him."

"Then you haven't changed a bit after all these years," the leader wailed.

"How do you know Icarus?" asked Caleb.

"He was a celebrity, the smartest and most caring person I have ever met. He wanted to change the world, but people in government cut off his wings. Nowadays, those in power no longer make decisions not based on what is right, but on what is most beneficial to them, even if it means sacrificing their morals and ruining other people's lives."

"Is that what happened to you?" Asked Ariadne, who finally dared to speak.

"Our city was one of the first in succumbing to the disasters. Most of our people died, and the rest of us escaped in search of a new home, but we found hostility instead. The mayor of Genesis said that our presence in the city was a threat and that we could not stay. Other cities took similar approaches and we were sent into exile to live in the dangers from outside."

"But why? Didn't the current mayor offer you a chance to move in?"

"My dear girl, he didn't do anything like that. Carmichael is the worst person in this place and never cared about us except to get us out of his city."

Caleb could feel Ariadne's world shatter like a vase falling to the ground. She had always admired and worshipped his father, to the point of blind faith, and now these people were telling them that he was a bad man and had only lied to her and the population.

He couldn't blame her for feeling that. After all, don't we all feel the same for our parents?

"You two will stay here in our camp until night, and then you shall continue your mission. I promise you that you will be safe," Joanne declared, before addressing the guards who had brought Caleb and Ariadne. "Now, give these children something to eat, water, and clean clothes; they look exhausted."

Caleb would never admit it, but in the rush to leave town, he completely forgot to pack something to eat and drink.

The couple only realized how hungry they were when they tasted the first bite, and moments later asked for a second plate.

The outsiders ate only vegetables, and these tasted different from the artificial ones because they were naturally harvested in a small greenhouse. Regarding water, they used a cleaning system similar to that of the city,–but ran by humans, of course–, that tasted better somehow.

These people may not have come from the city, but Caleb thought they were more united and had better habits than everyone else there.

After midday, Caleb understood why people were wearing hoods over their heads. Outside, the heat was so overwhelming that he almost fainted after just half an hour outside–another consequence of climate change. Fortunately, some residents took care of him and took him to one of the houses to recover.

Caleb and Ariadne didn't talk for the rest of the day, he tried to find her, but he couldn't.

"She probably needs some time to process everything," he thought.

To be honest, he didn't know what he was going to say to her. He had always known that Mayor Carmichael was not a good person, but he had never really thought about how Ariadne saw him. Although knowing that he had never really asked the outsiders to go the city shocked Caleb, it was not as much as Ariadne, because he already suspected that.

What still surprised him was how Carmichael had ordered all the police to arrest him. He really didn't want him to find Icarus, but why? If he could find solutions to the world's problems, shouldn't Carmichael also work to find him? And above all, why did Icarus disappear in the first place?

He had so many questions that would soon be answered if luck were on their side. However, one thing was certain: he was right in his actions. Otherwise, why would the wicked be so determined to wrestle him down?

For the next few hours until night, Caleb spent his day playing with the children and helping people with their tasks.

As darkness suppressed the light and the full moon took the place of the sun in the firmament, Caleb and Ariadne met in the middle of the camp. Caleb had the voyager between his fingers.

"Thank you for everything you have done for us," he told Joanne.

"You are very welcome. I really hope you find him," she replied. "Good luck kids."

"How's your ankle?" He asked Ariadne.

"Now it's better, thank you. What's our next step?"

"Radcliffe said the purpose of the voyager was to transport people to other places," he replied, "but since everything related to this artifact is encrypted, I guess that just means it will show us a map or something."

"It makes sense."

Caleb lifted the voyager and a blue light shone over the equator of the sphere as soon as it was illuminated by the moonlight.

Just as Caleb was about to press the button, fire in the form of bullets fell over them. Caleb looked around in confusion and realized that someone was shooting at the group.

"We're under fire!" Shouted Joanne. "Take cover!"

Since Caleb was too stunned to move, Ariadne took his hand and took him behind a house.

"Are you okay?" She asked him, worried that he wasn't responding.

Caleb could not listen, as he was watching the Genesis policemen entering the camp, capturing the villagers and shooting at the ones that were running to hide or attacked them.

Among the bodies on the ground, he recognized Michael, the man who had found him and Ariadne and taken them to the camp. He had received two blows to the chest.

It was a terrible scene, and the harder Caleb watched, the heavier he felt his stomach, and the more he felt a critical urge to throw up.

"Caleb!" Ariadne shook him, and somehow that was enough to bring him back to reality. "We have to go"

"No, we… we have to help them," he implored breathlessly. "They're here for us, these people have done nothing wrong."

"I know you want to help them, but the only thing we can do now is to get away from here. If we stay here, they will capture us."

The shots from close gunshots and the desperate cries of the people distracted him again, and although he understood that their mission was the most important at the moment, he was torn between fighting the soldiers or going with Ariadne…

"Caleb, please, I need to know that you are with me."

But she was right, there were only two of them and over a dozen policemen; they would never make it.

"Yes," he replied, holding her hand.

Ariadne helped him get up, and Caleb extended the voyager in front of them. They held their hands again, ready to flee if necessary.

With a shiver in his heart, Caleb pressed the button in the black ball, and its blue light devoured the device and the two of them.

The next thing they noticed was that they were no longer in the camp.