go out. I haven’t been
shopping in ages.” Stripes took hold of my hand and led me out the
kitchen and up the stairs. My breakfast was all over the floor
thanks to Hercules. “Hercules if you don’t clean that up Marie will
have your neck for it,” she added cheerfully over her shoulder.
I sighed as I
closed my door. Stripes sat like a perfect lady on the edge of my
hot pink bed-sheets. I walked over to my wardrobe, pulling my top
off on the way and tossing it in the vague direction of the wash
basket. I debated what would most annoy Eddie in my wardrobe. I’m
not big on racy clothes but I felt like making him look just to
spite him. After a couple of seconds of indecision I selected a
mock corset top in deep blue.
I took off the
fluffy socks. Boots are no good for shopping; they take far too
long to take off and put back on when trying on clothes. My jeans
just didn’t look right without the boots so I changed them for a
longer pair with more of a flare; they were still tight round most
of me though. I threw on a pair of skin-coloured socks and I was
ready to go.
“You look good
Trix,” Stripes commented. I smiled. Stripes always made me
smile.
“Thanks, I
know.” I tossed my hair for effect and fell onto the bed laughing.
The tension had gotten way past uncomfortable and I couldn’t seem
to do anything else. Stripes still sat on the edge of the bed
smiling, but I could see her fighting off giggles as well.
“Well? Are we
going shopping or what?” I asked before we started to roll around
on the floor in uncontrolled laughter. We could be there for hours
if we started that.
Chapter 5
We didn’t see
anyone as we walked down the road to the pods. That’s not unusual;
mostly people don’t spend much time wandering about suburbia. Our
neighbours worked normal hours so they’d long be at work by now,
the children at school and the women at the gym desperately trying
to get rid of that last bit of baby fat that nobody else could
see.
It felt good
to be out of the House. A small tension I hadn’t realised was there
eased from my shoulders as we walked. Maybe it was just being
outside under the almost sun. It looked like it might even come out
today, although it was determinately hiding behind white fluffy
clouds while we walked down the street. It was better than the dark
grey clouds we’d had for the past week and it didn’t look like
rain, yet. I thought of the old adage: in Britain it is either
raining, just stopped raining or about to rain. I didn’t think it
was all quite that bad but it made me smile to think of it. If it
got too much colder we might even be in for some snow. The one
problem with clearer skies was that the temperature dropped.
We used the
communal pods because Marie was worried about security if we all
had our own. The officials would notice our rather odd movements
and start asking questions. It’s not a hardship considering we live
in one of the more affluent areas of Devon and the communal pods
are only five minutes walk away. Honestly, we didn’t use them
enough to justify the expense of having our own anyway.
The garage the pods are kept in is absolutely enormous.
There’re only about ten pods but there’s enough room for at least
twice as many. Each pod has its own charging station and they
looked like square soldiers lined up in their neat rows. We went to
the first two and each swiped our pre-paid cards. They severely
reduced the chance of someone following our movements. I didn’t
even want to think about how many names someone would have to go
through before they could tell who was using them. Although
it was a bit of a
pain to have to carry the card; most transactions are done with
fingerprints and iris scans these days.
Each pod is
about a metre square and two metres tall. They run in the tracks
that replaced roads when there wasn’t enough oil to run cars
anymore. The seat felt like it was moulding itself to my shape and
the holographic controls blinked on
shopping in ages.” Stripes took hold of my hand and led me out the
kitchen and up the stairs. My breakfast was all over the floor
thanks to Hercules. “Hercules if you don’t clean that up Marie will
have your neck for it,” she added cheerfully over her shoulder.
I sighed as I
closed my door. Stripes sat like a perfect lady on the edge of my
hot pink bed-sheets. I walked over to my wardrobe, pulling my top
off on the way and tossing it in the vague direction of the wash
basket. I debated what would most annoy Eddie in my wardrobe. I’m
not big on racy clothes but I felt like making him look just to
spite him. After a couple of seconds of indecision I selected a
mock corset top in deep blue.
I took off the
fluffy socks. Boots are no good for shopping; they take far too
long to take off and put back on when trying on clothes. My jeans
just didn’t look right without the boots so I changed them for a
longer pair with more of a flare; they were still tight round most
of me though. I threw on a pair of skin-coloured socks and I was
ready to go.
“You look good
Trix,” Stripes commented. I smiled. Stripes always made me
smile.
“Thanks, I
know.” I tossed my hair for effect and fell onto the bed laughing.
The tension had gotten way past uncomfortable and I couldn’t seem
to do anything else. Stripes still sat on the edge of the bed
smiling, but I could see her fighting off giggles as well.
“Well? Are we
going shopping or what?” I asked before we started to roll around
on the floor in uncontrolled laughter. We could be there for hours
if we started that.
Chapter 5
We didn’t see
anyone as we walked down the road to the pods. That’s not unusual;
mostly people don’t spend much time wandering about suburbia. Our
neighbours worked normal hours so they’d long be at work by now,
the children at school and the women at the gym desperately trying
to get rid of that last bit of baby fat that nobody else could
see.
It felt good
to be out of the House. A small tension I hadn’t realised was there
eased from my shoulders as we walked. Maybe it was just being
outside under the almost sun. It looked like it might even come out
today, although it was determinately hiding behind white fluffy
clouds while we walked down the street. It was better than the dark
grey clouds we’d had for the past week and it didn’t look like
rain, yet. I thought of the old adage: in Britain it is either
raining, just stopped raining or about to rain. I didn’t think it
was all quite that bad but it made me smile to think of it. If it
got too much colder we might even be in for some snow. The one
problem with clearer skies was that the temperature dropped.
We used the
communal pods because Marie was worried about security if we all
had our own. The officials would notice our rather odd movements
and start asking questions. It’s not a hardship considering we live
in one of the more affluent areas of Devon and the communal pods
are only five minutes walk away. Honestly, we didn’t use them
enough to justify the expense of having our own anyway.
The garage the pods are kept in is absolutely enormous.
There’re only about ten pods but there’s enough room for at least
twice as many. Each pod has its own charging station and they
looked like square soldiers lined up in their neat rows. We went to
the first two and each swiped our pre-paid cards. They severely
reduced the chance of someone following our movements. I didn’t
even want to think about how many names someone would have to go
through before they could tell who was using them. Although
it was a bit of a
pain to have to carry the card; most transactions are done with
fingerprints and iris scans these days.
Each pod is
about a metre square and two metres tall. They run in the tracks
that replaced roads when there wasn’t enough oil to run cars
anymore. The seat felt like it was moulding itself to my shape and
the holographic controls blinked on
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