Alice felt her bruised neck. It hurt. She sat down on the deck and continued to rub it, but the pain remained. Max, saw it on her trembling grimace.

“Mr. R,” Max said, “Is there any ointment or bandages on this ship? You said you’re delivering medicine, right?” Disturbed at the whole incident back at the diner that had happened, Mr. R did not hear him. Max asked again louder.

“Yes, sorry Max. Let me put this on cruise control.” He did what he said. Mr. R always did what he said he was going to do. He was a reliable man. The children knew they could trust him. He got up from his chair and headed into the cabin below the deck.

Max asked, “Are you OK, sis?” Alice didn’t say a word. She had nothing to say. She was in great agony and remained quiet. Max looked into her eyes with great care and concern.

“Everything is going to be alright.” He put his arm around her and sat next to her on the floor. She knew he was lying. He didn’t know that, no one knew.

Matilda was right. It’s all a damn dream. We all gotta wake up.

“I found some, my dear,” Mr. R. Said smiling brightly as he applied some cream to her bruises. It soothed the pain. She felt slightly at ease. Her muscles relaxed a bit and her shoulders slumped down. “There we are. Should be feeling better soon, Alice.”

Her face fell as she fell asleep from exhaustion hitting her head against the wooden flying ship.

The trees were being destroyed right in front of her, trees being broken in half by some mysterious force. The whole forest came tumbling down. She saw her father. Terror on his face, he turned his glance away from her and a beam of light consumed them both.

Alice woke. She sat upright but then realized how tired she was. She slammed her head back onto the pillow. She was relieved that she was only sleeping and no one could disrupt her. She thought maybe it was all a dream. That she was back at the orphanage and everything was as it was before. But she never had her own room at the orphanage.

She heard men’s voices. Mr. R and Max.

Oh, this again.

Groaning, she hopped out of bed, changed her clothes from her pack, and opened the door bumping into Mr. R.

“Hello, my dear,” he said with a big smile.

“Hello,” Alice said with a smile.

“How are you healing up? You feel better and well rested?”

“Yes, definitely! I needed that.” Alice looked around. "So, when are we going to the City?”

“Oh, soon, my dear Alice. But first, we have to make a delivery at the border.”

“The border? What border?”

“The border between the Platforms and the City itself.”

“Who’s at the border?”

“Coworkers. My acquaintances. But both you and Max need to stay below during the shipment. Under no circumstances are you allowed to come up. I was just explaining to Maxwell that you both are to stay put while my ship is being offloaded. I’ll talk with Jiggs, my boss, briefly, and then I’m gone. Then we head for the City. Is that alright?”

“Sounds like a plan, Stan!”

“Excellent.” Mr. R. said, gratified. “Well, we better be on our way.” He pulled out his pocket watch with his long gold chain sticking in his coat pocket, checking the time.

“Six o’clock. It’s morning already.” They both headed for the kitchen where Max poured them coffee.

“You want some coffee, Alice? It’s really good.”

“I’m alright.”

"What? You don’t drink any, my dear?”

“No, they never served us any.”

Max spoke up, “I never had it before till now. It’s good.” They all proceeded to sit down around the little table in the corner of the room. There was some cereal and milk. Mr. R had made some oats on the stove with brown sugar and honey. He served them both as he made them laugh with great and terrible stories of his past. He told them of his many adventures across the sea.

He avoided capture by pirates. Once he rescued a damsel in distress and many other adventures from his youth. He was an amazing storyteller. Both were enthralled and thoroughly entertained as they had eaten their fill and were satisfied.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Thank you, Mr. R,” Alice humbly said. Max affirmed it with a nod and smirk.

“Oh, you’re welcome, kids.” There was silence.

“I can’t believe we escaped,” Max said. “It seems so long ago.”

They all sat in silence reflecting on their adventures thus far.

Max asked, “Mr. R, what happened back there? Back at the diner? Why were they like that?”

Mr. R was surprised at the question. It took him off guard. At first, he didn’t know what to say. He thought about it for some time.

“I don’t really know. They were my friends,” he sighed deeply. “I know they had been struggling for some time, but I didn’t know they resorted to that. They were good people, but they got desperate...

“The City doesn’t care about its people. The Queen doesn’t care. You gotta understand something, this world doesn't play by the same rules you’re used to.”

He then leaned in real close with his hands folded on the table, “It seems as if the City’s effects have come up towards these parts. This is just North of the City. We’re closer than you think. It’s gonna infect the whole land pretty soon. Kids, hold on to what is good.”

Max piped up, “How do we know what’s good?”

Mr. R paused and reflected.

“When you see goodness, you’ll know.” That wasn’t very comforting. They didn’t know what he was talking about. “Trust me.” He gave them both a big smile.

Alice finally asked, “Mr. R, what do you know about the City?”

“I know a lot of things. I haven’t always lived there you know. I grew up on a farm.”

“Like a vegetable farm, they have in those huge warehouses?” Max asked, amazed.

Mr. R let out a great laugh, “No, not those “‘farms’,” he said. “Those aren’t farms. I mean a big farm outside. With a big open field and lots of crops and animals. You kids don’t know about this, though, but we used to pick vegetables from the ground. Now it’s processed. In soil that’s man-made.

“But when I was older, I moved to the City. The King had passed long ago before I came, but I heard of the grand stories of him. My father warned me not to go, but I went anyway in my pride. I was looking for an adventure. I wanted to find a job and get a place. Settle down, but… that never happened.”

“Well, what did happen?” Max asked, curious.

“Crime went up. Murders happened every day. Mayhem ensued. And it just got worse. I needed a better job. I couldn’t find one. I was homeless for a while. And I couldn’t go back to my farm because that’s when the floods came.”

“The floods?” Alice asked.

“Yeah, no one knew what started them. But the tide of the ocean increased at such a rapid rate, no one knew it was coming. Then pretty soon, the sea engulfed all of the green land of the world. They had started building these beams to reach up high above the seas before it happened, so some were spared.”

“Why did they increase?”

“Oh, some say, the heat of the sun melting ice caps. Some say it was just nature taking its course. But either way, it happened. And it was the brave new world. The new normal."

“What happened to your family?” Alice asked.

Mr. R took a deep breath, “They were killed... Like I said it all happened so fast. No one saw it coming. Cities and towns were wiped out just like that. Only those already on the platforms survived. But we’re just one section of the world now. No one knows what’s on the other side of the mountains down South.”

“Some say, the Light Beyond, still shines there,” Max said, hopeful.

“Maybe, just maybe.” Mr. R said.

Alice spoke up, “Mr. R, did you ever see the Light Beyond?”

“I never saw it, and my father never saw it either, but his father, my grandfather, was the last to see it. The Light Beyond or the Great Light was a mighty object in those days, they called it the Sun. No one knew what happened. You would think we would have died by now. But we’re still here after all these years. Some speculate, why we’re still here. Some say the universe isn’t finished with us yet. It is teaching us something. Or maybe, which I think it is, The Light is speaking to us. Guiding us to something far greater than anything we can imagine.

“My father said you couldn’t look at it without burning your eyes. Isn’t that a scary thought?”

The children looked at one another. They did think that was terrifying. But Alice was curious as always. The duo looked back at Mr. R who looked off into the corner of the room, thinking of the Great Light, the shining object that used to glitter in the sky. He imagined what it looked like. He snapped out of it. Looking back at them, he resumed his train of thought.

“But, as I was saying. It was a desperate time. For all of us. For the whole City. I robbed, you know… I did things I regret. I’m not a perfect man, kids. You gotta know that.

“But what I do know is, I didn’t want to do those things anymore. I never planned to steal, I never planned to kill. But I did and now I wanted to stop.

“So I got out of my hole and one day they needed a test pilot for one of these flying ships. They were just coming out with these babies and they needed someone off the street to test ‘em. Sure enough, I tested it with flying colors and got the job. They wanted to see who could drive it and then they would give the job to the guy who could do it. Then I got better deliveries, better routes. I just got better and better pay. And I forgot about my family. I forgot about my old life... And I never looked back.

“You kids better know something, I miss my family, I miss how it all was, but I don’t think it ever will be like it was again. But you kids, give me hope. Let’s go. Time is a-wasting.” He got up swiftly and checked his pocket watch again.

“Seven, thirty.” He whispered to himself. He started cleaning up ferociously all of their plates and cups and started putting away the food. He prompted the children to start cleaning and to get ready for their next stop.

Reginald knew this was going to be an important delivery and he didn’t want to screw this up. He wanted this to be in and out. No trouble whatsoever.

He told the children to get ready and wash up for the day ahead. They went off to their rooms. Max prepared himself for the next move by sitting at his bedside, thinking. He reflected on how he had frozen back at the diner. How he had almost stalled too long, and almost put everyone in danger. He didn’t like that quality about himself. He decided to change that quality today but didn’t quite know how. Having the skills like Alice to defend himself, he always froze when the time came.

Alice changed her clothes, put her hair in a ponytail, wore her tactical boots, and concealed four knives on her person. She was ready for anything. Then meticulously, she put the hammer in her back pants belt loop where it dangled.

Feeling her bruised neck again, the pain throbbed. She remembered Frank’s eyes. How they shone brightly against the fridge he had pressed her head into. She jumped a little from the image, trying to put it out of her mind.

She became afraid. She didn’t like that.

No fear, not now, not ever.

She walked out of her room and knocked on Max’s door.