Page 73 of The Explorer
“Right.” I wasn’t sure what to say or think. Looking over to Aubri again, I wished Britany wasn’t sitting between us. I wanted to ask Aubri if she was okay, but with the way she refused to look in my direction, it was hard to connect to her.
“Hey, grasshopper.” Leaning forward, I placed a hand on her thigh.
When Aubri turned, it was like seeing Magni look back at me. The hard shell and simmering anger that I’d been intimidated by as a boy was right there in her eyes.
“What?”
“You okay?”
She moved her leg to avoid my touch. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
With Britany between us, there wasn’t more I could say, so I leaned back in my seat and looked out the window next to me.
The journey to Paris felt endless as Britany kept talking for almost three hours until we reached our destination. It was ridiculous how slow this drone was, and it made me miss our superior ones back home.
“We’re here.” Banni tapped the ceiling with nervous energy.
Looking down I saw how vegetation had swallowed a massive city in ruins. Britany leaned against me to see.
“Oh wow. I’ve seen pictures of this place when it was the great capital. This is sad,” she said.
Her sweet perfume smelled nice, but I felt cramped by her and pulled as far back in my seat as possible.
“See that weird iron construction popping up above the trees to the right?” Banni pointed. “At one point it reached high in the sky and was called the Eiffel Tower. It’s incredible that they were able to build stuff like that six hundred years ago.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“I wish I had a time machine so we could go back and warn them,” Britany said.
“What makes you think they would listen to you?” Aubri asked without looking at Britany. “You can’t even get your own government to listen to you.”
“What do you mean?”
“The reason you’re here is because a woman’s body isn’t her own in this country. To them, you’re nothing but a breeder. You’re being punished for setting your boundary. Your government isn’t any better than the one four hundred years ago. They still think they know what’s best for the people. My uncle is the same.”
I gaped. Aubri had always shown a watertight solidarity and loyalty toward Khan. It had to be that question from the student today that was still messing with her head.
“It wasn’t the European countries that bombed Europe. It was…”
Aubri cut Britany off. “I know what happened, but even if you went back, they wouldn’t listen to you. How would you even prove to them that you’re from the future?”
“I could show them pictures and tell them our story of survival.”
The drone descended and landed in a large meadow with a ruin that looked like an old church. As we exited the drone, the women were still arguing about time traveling.
“You said that you’d been here before, right?” I asked Val and Banni.
Val shook his head, but Banni confirmed it with a nod while looking around as if watching for dangerous animals. “I did my first two years as an Explorer in the Northern group and I loathed this place.”
“Did something bad happen?”
“We were attacked by wolves and I have scars from fighting them off.”
“You fought wolves?”
“Oui. In self-defense. I barely survived and my friend got mauled before we scared the wolves off. We tried getting him back home to see a doctor, but by the time we got there it was too late for them to do anything. I’ll never forget his soul-ripping screams of fear when the wolves attacked. Ihatewolves.”
Banni gathered our group and kept looking around as he spoke in a grim tone. “I want everyone to stay close. Britany, all you need to do is observe what we’re doing. Save your questions for when we’re back on the drone. I want us out of here as fast as possible.”
