The wandered for a while. Zoe was facinated by this world up close. She had seen a lot of it above the glass but it was much prettier up close. She liked the way that the trees would move when a wind passed making a pleasant sound. She liked the way the clouds moved and stayed and how they formed some sort of shapes. She liked how the colors complimented each other even though they were different. The birds and insects flew around her making beautiful music and fluttering away when they saw her. She was amazed by the concept of other life that not only wasn't human but seemed to know exactly what it was doing. Even the houses seemed more natural then the houses above them.
After they wandered silently for a few minutes Jacob finally turned to her and said, "I have to ask; what is is like up there on the glass world?"
"I don't really know what it's like down here so I can't really compare," she said. Right then she stepped on a small rock. She paused to try to get it off her foot by rubbing it on her other leg, then continued on her way.
"For instance do a lot of people not wear shoes?" he asked, then looking up, he added, "I guess you wouldn't really need them."
Zoe didn't answer. She just looked down at her bare feet.
"Everyone wears shoes, it's the only way to get around. Our shoes can lift us up and carry us up to 50 miles per hour, where as just walking would get you no where," Rocky said.
"Oh," Jacob looked at Zoe who had decided to look up and look straight ahead. He continued, "Okay, another question, are all the watches in your world the same? I couldn't help but notice that both of you were wearing the same one," Jacob said.
"Watches?" Rocky and Zoe asked at the same time. Zoe searched her memory to see if that word rang any bells but she was pretty sure that was the first time that she had heard that word.
"Yeah, the thing on your wrist," he said.
"Oh, our social pads," Zoe said.
"Social Pads? How do they work?"
She smiled at him and said, "I would show you but both of my hands are full right now."
"Here I can show him," Rocky said and with that he opened up his screen and showed him what it looked like. It was basically like a computer screen but using hologram technology it floated in the air with a press of a button. It had everything on it: games, the time, inventory, finances, chat, email, books, school-work, and a lot more.
"Sure," Rocky pressed a few buttons and eventually got to a chat screen. He scrolled down his list of friends and then turned it off. "I would probably go ahead and chat with someone but we get no service down here at all. Which is weird because we get service everywhere on the surface. Now I know why they even put a service bar on the screen."
"How did you avoid going up?" Zoe said looking right at Jacob.
"Well, when the world government got together and decided to create an entirely new community in the sky, a lot of people didn't want to go up," he said.
"Right, the anti-change rebels," Zoe said. "But the government forced everyone to go up, they searched for these rebels, they had trackers and everything, and by the time that they shut the last panel everyone was up there. They triple-checked."
"Except the trackers were made for the glass world. They only worked through openings and windows. That's why when people hid in caves or basements they were all found. Caves have an opening and basements normally have windows. But two families hid in an old shed that had no windows and the door touched the ground. When inside you were completely sealed in. No one ever found them. Those people are my ancestors and that's why we're here today," Jacob explained.
"Why would anyone ever want to live down here? I mean if we were still on the glass world, we would have been able to call an ambulance and I would be fixed already. Plus it's filthy down here," Rocky said.
"I do. I mean look at all this beauty that surrounds us," Zoe said.
Jacob looked at Zoe and then looked at Rocky. "Are you guys friends?" he asked.
"Not really," they said at the same time.
"Right," Jacob said. "You guys hungry, we could take a break and eat a little before we continue." Zoe and him put Rocky down and Jacob pulled out a bag. He searched through it. "I only have some jerky and it's a little bland. My mom never puts enough spices on it. I promise you the food at the tribe is much better, though probably not as good as what you have on the glass world."
He then proceeded to hand them the jerky. Zoe stared at it, without eating it. It didn't look edible. The only food they had on the surface was called pottage and it was just a cream colored semisolid liquid. Not only did the jerky look bad but when she looked at Jacob who was eating it, it looked tough to eat. It practically had to rip it off with his teeth.
She tried it though. She copied what Jacob was doing and pulled it with her teeth. She was amazed at how strong her teeth were, it took a little effort to rip it off but not enough that it was too hard. She chewed a little. It didn't taste or feel like pottage at all. It had much more flavor and it was much rougher on her tongue. It wasn't bad at all, it tasted much better then pottage.
After seeing Zoe take a bite, Rocky did as well. His reaction was very similar to Zoe's. "Hey, what is this?" Rocky asked.
"Deer," Jacob said.
"What?" Rocky and Zoe asked at the same time.
"The meat my mom used is deer," he said again. "It's not as good as beef but we had a lot more deer meat."
"Meat. That's just another word for a dead animal isn't it? You mean to tell me that I'm eating a dead animal?" Rocky asked. "That's so barbaric."
"You guys don't have meat on the glass world?" Jacob asked.
Zoe cringed. "No, not at all. We only have pottage," she said. "Which is just edible glass."
It was Jacob's turn to cringe. "That doesn't sound good at all."
The Forgotten World Part 9
Index
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