“Uhhh, did we make a mistake?” I asked. “We’re back on First Earth.”
“Nope, everything’s fine,” Gunny said.
He walked over to the side of the cavern where a pile of clothes lay. I hadn’t seen them when I first landed. I was too busy being confused. “Only looks like First Earth,” he said as he sorted through the clothes.
Hearing that made me relax a little. We weren’t going to step into some bizarro new world. But I have to admit, I was a little disappointed, too. I kind of wanted to step into a bizarro new world.
“I have no idea how these show up,” Gunny said as he looked through the clothes.
I joined him and looked through the clothes for myself. “Uncle Press told me it’s the acolytes.”
“Acolytes?” exclaimed Gunny. “What’s an acolyte?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never met one. But Uncle Press once told me they’re people from the territories who help the Travelers. Beyond that, I haven’t got a clue.”
I was glad to see the clothes weren’t all weird and futuristic. I picked out a pair of normal-looking khaki pants and a navy blue turtleneck. There were even regular old socks and boxers, too! The shoes were the most futuristic thing there. They didn’t even look like shoes. They were more like big, white doughnuts. That is, until you slipped them on your feet. As soon as your foot was in, they molded to you and made a perfect fit, kind of like the air globes on Cloral. One size fits all. Cool.
Gunny put on a regular old white shirt with buttons, and a pair of black pants. He chose a black pair of doughnut shoes. White shoes weren’t his style. He also put on a black jacket that finished off the look nicely. He then reached into the pocket of his jacket and took out a small, silver square that was about the size of a baseball card.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Some kind of telephone thing,” he answered.
“Telephone?”
“Uh-huh. It’s how we get in touch with Patrick. Don’t ask me how it works—it’s all magic to me.” He pressed a button on the card and a red light on top blinked twice. It then blinked green and went out. “He knows we’re here,” Gunny announced. “He’ll come get us.”
“Cool. Can we, uh, take a look around?”
Gunny smiled. He knew I was dying to see what the future looked like. “That’s what we’re here for,” he said. “C’mon.” He led me to the wooden door that was the gate.
Before he opened it, I asked, “Any problems with quigs?”
“Quigs? You mean those yellow-eyed dog things? Nah. If they know you’re not scared of them, they don’t bother you.”
That wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I was scared of those yellow-eyed dog things. I hoped Gunny gave off enough brave vibes to counter my fear vibes. Gunny then pulled the door open and we stepped out of familiar territory. I expected to see the subway tunnel of First and Second Earth. But that’s not what was waiting.
It was a subway tunnel all right, but nothing like the one I was used to. First off, it was bright. White light came from long tubes than ran along the ceiling. The walls were white and shiny and totally clean. This was nothing like the subways I was used to. Along the floor were two silver rails about ten feet apart. I guessed the subway train of the future was a monorail, like at Disney World.
The tunnel stretched far off in each direction. I could see ahead to the lights of the station. It was still there. I wondered if it had reopened since being abandoned in my time of Second Earth.
We then both heard a loud click and turned quickly to see the gate had closed behind us. If I hadn’t known better, I’d say the door had disappeared, because it was absolutely flush with the wall. You had to look really close to see the outline. Weird. The inside of the gate was the familiar, wooden door. But the outside was shiny white like the rest of the tunnel. There was only one clue that it was even there. Carved into the wall was the familiar star symbol that marked all the gates.
“We best get moving,” Gunny said. “Don’t want to get caught by a train.”
I ran ahead of Gunny because I was so excited. When I got to the platform, I quickly jumped up, then helped Gunny when he caught up with me. I turned around and got my first look at a subway station, Third Earth–style.
What I saw blew me away.
The station was there, all right, and it was definitely open for business. It wasn’t very crowded. Only a handful of people wandered about, waiting for their trains. They all looked pretty normal, too. People hadn’t changed at all in three thousand years.
But the subway station sure had. I walked a few yards away from the track and was hit with an incredible sight. Standing at a railing, I looked down onto a massive, underground mall. It must have gone down fifty floors below train level! Imagine the biggest mall you’ve ever seen, then multiply it by like forty times, and you’d have this place. And it was all underground! We were on the very top and could see down to multiple levels that had tons of shops and restaurants, and even a whole section that looked like private entrances. They must have been apartments or something.
People moved around on every level. Some walked, but many rode these odd two-wheel scooters that silently and quickly moved them along. Looking all the way down to the bottom, I saw a humongous pool. It was practically an indoor lake, where people swam and played ball. It was even big enough for people to paddle kayaks around.
This was an enormous, underground city in the Bronx. Or should I say under the Bronx.
Gunny had walked up behind me but didn’t say anything at first. I think he wanted me to get over the shock.
Finally he asked, “What do you think?”
“Amazing is a good word,” I said in awe.
“The way I heard it,” Gunny explained, “they were running out of space, so they decided to move into the only unexplored area left on Earth.”
“Underground,” I said.
“That’s right,” Gunny said. “From what Patrick tells me, this is nothing. There’s whole cities like this all over the world.”
I watched as people went about their business, like this was normal or something. I guess to them it was normal but…wow. I also saw all sorts of people of every race. This wasn’t a segregated neighborhood. Maybe people had finally learned how to get along with one another.
“It gets better,” Gunny said.
He led me to the escalator that would take us up to the surface. As we walked, I saw a subway train pull into the station. Gone was the clash of wheels on metal and the screech of brakes. The train slid smoothly into the station with a quiet hum. Very cool. Very Disney.
We hopped on the escalator and I had to stop myself from running up faster. I was dying to get my first look at the outside world of Third Earth.
As we rode up Gunny said, “I guess people got smart somewhere along the line. It stopped being about building more and bigger. People began to understand they had to respect what they had or it wouldn’t be around for the future.”
“So what did they do?” I asked.
“Look,” Gunny said.
We had reached the top of the escalator where I was expecting to step out into the middle of the normal, busy Bronx. Well, we were in the Bronx, all right, but it was far from normal.
The first thing I saw was grass. Lots of it. It looked like a park! There was a vast lake where people were fishing under the shade of leafy-green trees. The terrain wasn’t flat, either. There were hills and rocky rises and even a footbridge over a stream that fed the lake. The sky was clear blue on this amazing, sunny day. I even smelled something familiar. It smelled like—
“Pine trees,” Gunny said. “That’s what you’re smelling.”
He had read my mind. The green subway kiosk was built on the edge of a dense grove of pine trees. It was a far different smell from the chemical fume–odor of First Earth.
There were a few odd buildings scattered around that looked like a jumble of boxes stacked on top of one another. They must have been apartment building
s because I saw people out on their balconies, talking and reading and playing and basically hanging out.
There were streets, but rather than the normal grid pattern of a city, these roads gently curved around the natural terrain. There was traffic, but the cars were small, and must have been powered by electricity because the only noise they made was a gentle hum. Many people rode bikes or walked or zipped along on those two-wheel jobs I had seen underground. I also saw a lot of small, dark green shelters scattered around. We had just stepped out from under one of them. My guess was that these shelters marked the entrances to the incredible underground complex below.
“The first time I came here,” Gunny said, “I just stood and stared like you’re doing right now. Then I got this wonderful, warm feeling.”
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“Because I realized it may have taken a few thousand years, but we finally got it right.”
“It’s incredible,” I said. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I figured we had more important things to handle back on First Earth,” Gunny answered. “The future would always be here. It’s the present we have to worry about.”
I then heard a friendly voice call to us. “Looks like we’ve got a couple of tourists in town!”
A small car slid up behind us that wasn’t much bigger than a golf cart. It was much sleeker than a golf cart, though, with a front end that came to a narrow point and had regular-size wheels. It was a silver vehicle, with no top and four seats facing forward.
Behind the wheel was a guy who looked to be in his twenties. He had long brown hair, bright eyes, and a big smile. He was dressed like a normal guy from Second Earth, with jeans and a dark green, short-sleeved shirt.
“Afternoon, Patrick,” Gunny said. “Thanks for coming to fetch us so quickly.”
Patrick jumped out of the car and gave Gunny a warm hug. “Good to see you, Gunny. Where’s the wild man?”
Gunny motioned to me and said, “This is his nephew, Bobby Pendragon.”
Patrick shook my hand with a firm grip. “Pendragon! Press told me you’d be showing up someday. I’m glad to meet you.”
“Me too,” I said.
“So? Where is he?” Patrick asked.
Gunny gave me a look. The answer had to come from me.
“Press is dead,” I said softly. I didn’t know how else to say it.
I saw the genuine look of pain on Patrick’s face. The three of us stood there silently for a moment, out of respect.
“I’m sorry, Bobby,” Patrick finally said. “Your uncle was like a brother to me. I’m going to miss him.”
I nodded. Wherever Uncle Press went, no matter how many lives he touched, he always made friends. With everybody but Saint Dane, that is.
“Just before he died,” I said, “he told me it was the way it was supposed to be. I have a tough time buying into that.”
“I know,” Patrick said softly. “But Press believed it. And sure as we’re standing here right now, I can’t remember a time when he was wrong about anything.”
I nodded.
“We need your help, Patrick,” Gunny said, getting to business. “I thought you could take us to that library place.”
“Absolutely. Hop in.”
Since this was my first visit to Third Earth, Gunny got in back and I sat next to Patrick. My new Traveler friend hit the accelerator and we zipped ahead.
“Have you ever been to the New York Public Library in Manhattan?” he asked me.
“I’ve been by it,” I answered. “The place with the big stone lions in front, right? Is it still there?”
“Yes. But, well, things have changed a little.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” I interrupted.
Patrick laughed. “I’ve been to First and Second Earth. I hear you,” he said. “But there are still many links to the past. There’s a strong sentiment that history should be respected and honored. You’ll see what I mean.”
Saying that things had changed was the understatement of all time. New York City, as I remembered it, was gone.
This was once an area where every square inch was cemented over or built on. It was clogged with traffic and people and noise and air pollution. I’m not saying it was a bad place, but it was definitely a busy place. What New York had become in the year 5010 was very different.
We drove our silent car along a winding road through the country. Trees lined the nearly empty roadway. Off to either side were beautiful, green, rolling hills. Every so often I saw another of those odd, boxy buildings where people lived, but besides that you would think we were driving through Vermont. There were even a few farms with rows of lush fruit trees. When we passed one, I got the definite smell of apples.
“Where is everybody?” I asked.
“I’ll give you the short version,” Patrick said. “By the mid-twenty-first century, we were running out of natural resources. Pollution was worse than ever and overpopulation was beyond serious. Governments had to start getting smart or it would have been disaster. From then on, Earth functioned as one planet, as opposed to a group of countries with different agendas.”
“So they went underground?” I asked.
“That was one solution. It began with manufacturing and energy. There are power plants close to the center of the planet.”
“Unbelievable,” was all I could say.
“It took more than a thousand years, but by the year 4000, every commercial enterprise was moved underground. From factories to the Gap stores.”
“You still have the Gap?” I asked.
“I think that sweater you’re wearing came from there.”
I took a closer look at the sweater. It didn’t look much different than what I could have gotten on Second Earth. Good old Gap. Gotta love ’em.
“The only businesses that stay above ground are farms and some solar power facilities,” Patrick explained. “Most of the big power sources are out West in areas that are unpopulated.”
“Makes sense,” I said.
“Then people began relocating underground as well. There are vast housing complexes just below the surface, all interconnected by a train system.”
“Isn’t that a little claustrophobic?” I said.
“Not as bad as it was on the surface. We were running out of space. That’s what prompted the other move. We not only went down, we went up.”
“Up?”
“Space colonies. It started with Space Station Alpha at the turn of the twenty-first century. A few larger orbiting space platforms soon followed. From there we could jump out farther. The next step was the moon. There were colonies of a thousand people each, living on the moon by the year 3000. Mars was next, followed by Venus and two of the moons of Jupiter. By last count there are one hundred and fifty-five million people living off-planet. Combine that with the fact that people finally started getting smart about family planning, and we finally achieved zero population growth.”
This was a future that could only be imagined by science fiction writers in my time.
“Are there colonies under the sea as well?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, that too,” answered Patrick. “But that’s not significant. Maybe only a few million people are in underwater habitats.”
“A few million? Not significant? Amazing.”
“I’ll tell you what was amazing,” Patrick said. “Once man began to pull back from the surface, nature began to take charge again. Pollution was reduced. The air and water gradually cleaned up. Forests reemerged, starting with the rain forests in South America. In a lot of ways it was like the world took a giant step backward.”
“But what happened to all the stuff? I mean, most of the buildings and roads are gone. Where did everything go?”
“It was all slowly dismantled. It was like a giant recycling project. Much of the material from the surface was retooled and used below to create the underground cities. There were billions of tons of material that couldn’t be re-used, like road surfaces. Not to ment
ion all the material that had to be dug out to create the cities below. Most of that was broken down and used to create new terrain. The rolling hills you’re looking at were made from the streets and buildings of New York that were demolished. The whole idea was to heal the surface and preserve our resources for the future.”
“But some people still live on the surface?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah. There are still cities all over the world. My guess is that it’s about half and half, surface dwellers and below grounders. But the below grounders spend a lot of time on the surface, too. People still take vacations to the ocean, or the mountains to ski, and pretty much do most of the things they did on Second Earth. If you want, we can go to a Yankees game.”
“There’s still a Yankee Stadium?”
“Of course,” Patrick answered with a smile. “There are some things that shouldn’t be changed.”
“It’s like…perfect,” was all I could say.
Patrick laughed. “No, nothing’s perfect. But it’s better than the direction man was headed.”
We rode the rest of the way to the library in silence. Of course I had a million more questions, but I wanted to stop thinking so much and take in the surroundings. Gunny was right. It was a good feeling. It took a while, but it seemed as if mankind had finally figured out the right way to get by.
We sped along the roadway, headed for Manhattan. The closer we got to the island, the more I realized what Patrick meant about preserving the past. Though most of the terrain had been returned to its natural state, there were still a lot of structures on the surface, like the bridges over the rivers that circled Manhattan.
And the Empire State Building was still there. But it now had a shiny, steel surface that made it look like high-tech Empire State. I wasn’t sure if it was the exact same building from my time, but it was definitely a huge reminder of the past. Very cool. In general, Manhattan was a little more built up than the Bronx. There were more streets and a lot more of those boxy apartment buildings, and it felt more like a city. Still, it was all very relaxed and civilized.