Outskirts

Author’s Note: Nothing.

The house on the hill stood firm as the wind brushed against the apple orchard, which bore only black fruit. The wind had been rather strong today, Iris thought, plucking a daisy from the grass in her backyard. A daisy in this environment, and perfectly fine too? She made her mind to show it to everyone she knew, but got distracted by another thought.

Does the entire hill constitute the backyard or only the region surrounded by the garden fence?

The walkie-talkie in her pocket beeped.

Fixing the tape that held the antenna firmly in place, she gave out a Hello before waiting for a response. The voice on the other side came out with the usual static, but a hint of warmness could be felt.

‘Time’s up Iris, come back soon.’

‘Okay!’ Iris said, keeping her mouth dangerously close to the device. Pocketing the daisy, she ran into the house and threw her shoes aside.

There was a window in the kitchen that would easily allow her grandmother to call out from where she had been standing, but it had been bolted shut. The severe amount of pollutants and radiation in the atmosphere proved far too dangerous for the two elderly people to venture into without the necessary equipment. Iris was born into this atmosphere, so she could easily withstand it, albeit not for prolonged periods of time. This was why her grandmother always set a timer for fifteen minutes, and made sure she didn’t exceed that limit.

Stepping into the kitchen, Iris munched a KitKat and placed the wrapper in a dedicated box, which was filled halfway with an assortment of chocolate brands.

“You need to stop eating so much junk.”

“Junk’s all we have.”

She walked up the stairs carefully, remembering that the last time she wasn’t careful, it didn’t end very well for her.

“They said they’re coming in a few minutes, so make sure the living room is clean.”

Throwing the walkie-talkie on her bed, she came down the stairs and went back to the living room. She ran around, picking up every little thing on the floor and bumping into furniture. While carrying a vase, she bumped into her grandpa, who caught the vase from falling down.

“Wow, nice reflexes.”

“That’s Catherine’s favourite vase, so be careful with it. The doctor told you not to move around too much, right? Quit exerting yourself or you’re going to be sick.”

“Well, he’s not there anymore, now is he?”

The doorbell rang. Iris ran towards the door and removed the first lock.

“I’ll open it!”

“What did I just say about running?”

After disabling all three locks, they greeted their guests, who were equipped with masks covering their entire face except for the eyes. The man was pale and thin, but he was by no means weak. Underneath the jet black t-shirt was what many would call a ‘sleeper build’.

The woman was peculiar-looking, the elders thought.

“Sandra, did you do your hair?”

“Hm? No, I haven’t, why?” Sandra played with her hair, trying to feel for any difference in texture that she might not have noticed before.

“You just seem a bit different today,” Catherine noted.

“Must be her sundress,” Iris replied thoughtfully.

Her grandfather gazed at the sundress for a few seconds, before eventually remarking that she could be right.

“Aren’t you cold in that? Please, come inside.”

Sandra gasped. “Oh, don’t worry about me. This weather is nothing compared to Galleon. You should come with us once, Iris!” She pushed her sun hat back to get a clearer view of the girl, who was now ecstatic. The elders were quick decline their offer for Iris.

Inside the house, Allister and Sandra were offered tea. The tea was pink in colour, caused by the preservatives present in the drink. They added a salty aftertaste, which usually put off a lot of people from the flavor.

“I don’t understand how you could drink something this salty, but I remember how much you loved this when you were a kid, Allister, so Iris and I bought some last week.”

“Wow, I’m surprised you remember such trivial details. Thank you so much, Grandma, you don’t know how much I’ve missed this place. No matter how much time I spend in Galleon, Wimlasce will always be my home. You know, to tell you the truth, I just don’t understand how any normal human being could survive in that place. The temperature is in the negatives, and the sea breeze doesn’t help whatsoever. Oh, and the hailstorms! They happen so frequently, I’ve now started to carry an umbrella with me wherever I go.”

“I told you to carry an umbrella before, but you wouldn’t listen.” Sandra playfully nudged him.

“Well, I didn’t think it would be this bad!”

As the hearty conversation continued, Iris left for her room, which prompted the adults that it was safe for a change in topic.

“Alright, what happened last month? I heard some town nearby got decimated by holeworms.”

Catherine sighed. “It’s sad, really. Luis here had a few good friends who lived there, and most of them were killed, may their souls rest in peace.”

Luis continued. “I’ve gotten over it by now. We were old anyway, if the worms didn’t slaughter us, then time would have. The issue is that the doctor we frequent ended up as a casualty. Worst part is, that doctor was the only one nearby, so now we’ve been waiting patiently for a neighbouring town to share theirs.”

The conversation continued for about an hour, mostly revolving around the couple’s life in the seaport district, when the slow cooker went off. Catherine went to the kitchen while Luis set the table.

“Make yourselves at home, and we’ll have dinner in a few minutes.”

Sandra nodded, then turned around to ask Allister something. “They mentioned a doctor before. What doctor? Is your grandma not feeling alright? She does seem pretty shaken.”

Allister interrupted. “Oh no, she’s fine. You know, the reason they’re staying here, so far from the town, isn’t because of Luis and Catherine. It’s because of Iris. She might not look it, but she’s been sick for quite some time now. So they thought the outskirts would be a good idea, maybe help her recover. I was always against it, you know — the rebuilt societies are basically outskirts themselves, and moving her away from there would be detrimental to her mental health. Thankfully, seems she visits the towns once in a while, even if it’s just for errands.”

Sandra was horrified. She shouldn’t have asked Iris to come with them to Galleon. Before she could ask Allister about the disease, Catherine came back with the food, calling for Iris to come down. They ate their salad in silence, because chatting meant the food would get cold quickly, and it wasn’t worth wasting the electricity to heat it up more than once.

After the meal, Allister and Sandra prepared to leave. Iris ran towards them.

“Already leaving?”

Allister patted her shoulder. “I wish we could stay longer, but the train leaves in a few minutes, and if we don’t go now then we’ll have to wait a whole week to catch the next train. Where’s my stuff…”

“Oh, you kept it on my table. I’ll go get them for you.”

“No, that’s fine. I’ll take it myself.”

Both ran up to her room, and he grabbed his wallet and belongings. Before he could grab everything, he felt a tap on his arm. Looking down, he asked Iris what was up.

“I just remembered the daisy I found today,” she said. “I wanted to show it to you.”

“In this weather?” He turned around to face her, leaving her room to see the flower of interest.

Producing the daisy from her pockets, Iris handed it over to Allister, who inspected it with great care. “You can keep it,” she said, with a big smile on her face. Allister’s heart sank three times lower. He thanked her for the parting gift and walked down the stairs and left the house.

Soon after they left, the house went back to its quiet glory, and Grandpa Luis decided to do a bit of gardening. Donning their suits, he sent Iris to fetch their equipment from the shed.

The greenhouse had two segments that were completely detached by several feet: a white cuboidal pod with slightly tinted windows and the actual greenhouse with all its flora. The separation was required; if they entered directly into the greenhouse, they risked bringing in radiation along with them. Luis grew mostly frail plants, so utmost care was a necessity.

Entering the pod, which looked as if it had just dropped out of a Frutiger Aero commercial, the two kept their soilgun and dew drainer — basic gardening tools — in a very specific compartment that popped open the moment they entered the room.

Iris hopped to the front of the pod and pulled open the chain, which ran up into the ceiling and disappeared. A cylindrical sheet shot out from the front and locked onto the greenhouse. The makeshift terminal filled with air like a balloon, gently opening the door for the passengers to step through. Luis and Iris stared ahead, watching it unfold as if they had seen it for the millionth time. They were not surprised by its mechanisms in the least, but anyone else would lose their minds at the sight.

The terminal very much looked like a holeworm, Luis thought. If only it was more khaki in hue than the pure saintly white it was currently, then maybe it would be the perfect substitute to the beasts.

Running some graphs and whatnot on his smartphone, Luis would periodically test the conditions of the plants. Did it have enough water? Was there too much light entering? Luis pressed a button on a remote to decrease the amount of sunlight filtering through the glass. The dirt from his gloves seeped into the gaps between the buttons.

“Iris, could you get me some worms?”

Iris walked to the worm retrieval pipe, being extra careful not to tip anything over on her way. Operating the device, a solid metal can popped out of the pipe. “I’m surprised it works this well,” Iris admitted. She peeped through the transparent metal on the side of the can. “I think we got like, twenty worms in here.”

“Of course it works amazing, your dad made it after all.”

“He did?”

“Of course, he even made the- did I never tell you?”

“You guys never tell me anything about him.”

He stopped prodding the worms to look at Iris. He just noticed how both of them looked like cheap astronauts.

“Oh.”

An hour had passed since the two had started their gardening duties, and Luis thought it was about time they close up for the night.