9: Grand Rapids

Chapter 9: Grand Rapids

She hated this. She hated this stupid cave and these stupid people and this stupid shovel. Amanda wiped the perspiration from her forehead; she was going to have to give herself a deep facial wash after she got home just to prevent a million pimples from popping up on her face. She had never been this dirty before in her life. She was starting to seriously regret taking this job, but she knew it was her only chance to save up enough to move to New York. 

The New York City dome. Amanda thought longingly. She had never wanted to go there before, but now it seemed like paradise, her chance to start all over and leave the past behind her. She shoveled into the rock pile with increased vigor. She was going to keep this job until she had at least 2000 credits in the bank, then she would buy a one-way ticket to New York, find a new job and apartment, and apply for the spring semester at the university. 

She had been concerned that they wouldn't accept her because of her expulsion from the University of Detroit, but after a lengthy discussion with the dean, she had convinced him that she would never make the same mistake again. 

Amanda shoveled another scoop of rocks into the loading truck. The truck let out a loud beep. 

"That sound means that we've met our quota for the day," Said Mud, her loading partner. "We can stop working now."

Amanda couldn't have thought of anything she would have rather heard. She was more tired than she thought humanly possible and more hungry.

Amanda and Mud walked back through the tunnel to the larger cavern and sat down near the trolley. 

"You haven't asked why they call me Mud yet," Mud said, 

"That's because I don't care," responded Amanda.

Mud looked surprised by her bluntness and a little hurt, but Amanda didn't care about that either. She was in no mood for small talk.

From where she was sitting, Amanda could see Bee near the entrance of one of the tunnels. The leader of Bee's team detonated the explosives that they had just set, and covered his ears to block out the deafening noise. After the sound died down, he dismissed his workers with a wave of his hand.

Bee started heading toward the trolley and smiled when she saw Amanda.

"So, how was your first day?" she asked.

"Relentlessly excruciating," Amanda sighed. Bee snorted and sat down next to Amanda.

"Don't worry, It'll get easier. Tell you what, after we get home tomorrow, I'll order you a pizza and rent your favorite movie." 

Amanda straightened up, she had forgotten that they were supposed to spend the night at the mining camp. She groaned and put her head in her hands. Bee looked at her confused for a moment, then smiled and said.

"Oh, yeah I get it, you probably don't want to even see another pizza after working at pizza express for so long."

"You worked at pizza express?" said Mud, trying to jump into the conversation.

"for two months" Amanda muttered. She never would have thought that she would miss that place, but after spending all day in a hot cramped cave; she was starting to see things a bit differently.

                                                                          ----------------------------

Amanda moved nearer to the fire that was crackling a few feet away. The outside didn't have the perfect temperature control of the dome. She didn't understand how it could be so hot during the day and so cold once the sun went down. She scarfed down the mush that she had been served for dinner. It was the worst thing she had ever tasted, but she was so hungry it didn't matter. 

She thought longingly about the old dinners she used to eat. Back before her parents divorced, they would all go out to this upscale restaurant on Amanda's birthday. She always ordered the same thing, beef carpaccio, duck a l'orange, and a side of duchess potatoes. She felt so fancy and grown up when they went to that restaurant. Now she felt like a dirty miner who was eating pig slop.

After she had cleaned her plate, she took it over to the disposal bin; Bee was there throwing away her leftovers. 

"Hey Mandy, You want to see something cool?"

I really just want to see my bed right now," Amanda replied.

Bee grabbed Amanda's arm and started to pull her away from the camp. 

"Trust me, this is going to be worth it. I'm going to show you something that you've only seen on tv screens." 

Bee lead Amanda farther away from the miner camp. They walked off the dirt path and into the tall grass that grew on the side of the hill. It was a dark night, with clouds blocking the light from the stars. Amanda worried that they wouldn't be able to find their way back. 

"Are you sure that this is a good idea?" She asked Bee.

Bee snorted. 

"Awfully bold of you to assume that I've ever had a good idea." 

Bee was starting to question her taste in roommates and life decisions. They walked down the hill and into the forest. Now, Amanda could barely see two feet in front of her. Worst of all, Her arms were starting to form these little bumps that itched really badly. She told Bee about it, but she just laughed and said that those were just mosquito bites. Amanda knew what mosquitoes were; they had used to cause the rampant spread of deadly diseases before most of the world had moved into the domes. 

"Figures," she thought. Most of the plant and animal life on earth had been wiped out but these little bugs were still everywhere. The two walked for about fifteen more minutes.

"Come on, we're almost there," Bee said. "Let me tell ya when I first saw this place I totally freaked out."

Bee lead Amanda around a bend and came to a stop. She swept her arms out and gave an enthusiastic "Tada." The view in front of Amanda was unlike anything she had ever seen. 

They were standing on the side of a cliff over a fast moving river, and on the other side of the river was an abandoned metropolis. It was a city; not as big as Detroit but still large, and it was overrun by vegetation. Amanda didn't know what the name of the city had been, she was interested in medicine, not history. She got a creepy feeling from seeing it. It wasn't until this moment that Amanda realized just how many more people the world must have held before the event. 

"Isn't it so cool. I've always wanted to actually go into the place, but I never could figure out a way to get across the river," said Bee.

Amanda looked down. The moving body of water below her was rushing by fast. She backed away from the cliff, now hesitant to even get near the edge.

"Aw come on Mandy, it's fine. Look, I'm-AHH!" Bee screamed as she pretended to start to trip backward.

"Bee!" Amanda yelled not knowing that she was being pranked. Amanda surged forward to catch her friend, but a rock in her path caused her to instead fall and roll over the side of the cliff herself. 

"AHHHH!" Amanda screamed as she actually fell.

Amanda hit the water after a second of falling and snorted in some water through her nose. she alternated between kicking her legs and waving her arms through the water to reach the surface and breathing in lungfuls of air through her mouth. 

"Amanda! d-don't worry I'll go get help!" Bee shouted down at her, but Amanda knew it would be of no use. The current was much stronger than she was and it was trying to drown her. She couldn't understand why her life had turned out this way. A few months ago she was a popular straight-A biology major well on her way to success. Now, she was a poor copper rat that was going to drown in some stupid river. She wasn't going to give up without a fight, however, and kept desperately trying to keep her head above the water. 

"I can't die yet!" she thought. "not now, I haven't done what I was supposed to do. I just can't. Please don't let me die!"

She didn't know who she was begging to save her, but she kept repeating that sentence in her head, over and over. Suddenly, she felt herself hit something big and hard in the water. She grabbed hold of it and threw both her arms over it. It was a log or a large tree branch that was being swept downstream. Amanda caught her breath and tried to gain a bearing on her surroundings, but it was too dark. She couldn't see anything, and there was no way she would be able to swim her way to one of the sides. She wouldn't have been able to climb up the sides anyway. So she held onto the log, being swept further downriver every second.