Plague

rushed past as their speed increased.
    How high? They would either stall or fall or, if somehow Dekka could keep it up, they would rise and follow the curve of the dome. As they reached the top of the arc, their faces would be crushed against the barrier again. Sam wasn’t looking forward to that.
    Sam rolled onto his stomach and wormed his way to the edge of the container. There wasn’t much to see below. No lights. No way to know exactly where they were. He wished he had Albert’s map, maybe he could make some sense out of the patterns of shadow and dimly perceived, starlit heights.
    Looking up, he could not see the barrier at this height; it was not the smooth, pearly translucence he was used to. It was more as if he was pressed against glass, seeing stars beyond it. He’d halfway expected to find the stars were something painted on, but of course that was crazy. The barrier maintained the illusion even up here. He felt himself flying, staring out into the near-void of space.
    “How are you doing, Dekka?”
    “I can’t believe it’s working. But Sam . . .”
    “What?”
    “I’m numb, I can’t feel it, it doesn’t hurt, but I can hear them, Sam. I can hear mouths chewing, Sam.”
    What did he say to that? “Hang in there, Dekka.”
    “It’s like we’re floating through the stars,” Dekka said. “I’m pretending we’re floating up to heaven.”
    “Kind of hope we’re not,” Sam said.
    The screeching sound had changed pitch as speed built. And there was a very stiff breeze now, pressing down on him as the container, unbound from gravity, flew and screeched.
    “I wish you had not found me,” Toto said. “I was happier alone.”
    “Yeah. Sorry about that,” Sam said.
    Sam tried to guess how fast they were going by judging the wind. He tried to visualize being in a car with the window down. How hard did that wind blow when the car was going thirty or sixty or eighty miles an hour?
    Was it blowing that hard now?
    “Oh God, oh God, no, no, I see it, I see it!” Dekka cried and the container lurched hard and sank like a dropping elevator.
    It stabilized quickly and rose to once again scrape along the dome.
    In an unnatural voice Dekka said, “Sorry. I looked. It’s eating my . . .” She couldn’t finish. “I don’t think I have long, Sam.”
    “Glide path,” Sam whispered. If they were moving as quickly as he hoped, wouldn’t they keep some of that forward momentum even if Dekka dropped them?
    Yes. And they’d hit the ground at terminal velocity and that would be that.
    It felt as if the speed might actually be dropping now and when Sam stuck his hand up he got a shocking jolt. They were nearing the top of the dome and it was flattening out. Soon it would be full body contact and how long could they stand that?
    Not long.
    As the slope lessened their speed would drop and they’d be more and more pressed against the barrier.
    “It’s enough, Dekka,” Sam said. “Start lowering us. But not slowly.”
    “What?”
    “Move your gravity field so it’s stronger at the back end and weaker at the front.”
    “That’s what I’ve been doing so that we’d stay tilted away from the barrier.”
    “Yeah. Just do it more. Weaken it all, but more at the front end, right? It should be like sliding down a slope, right?”
    To his amazement Dekka laughed aloud. “If I gotta die, this is the way to go. Wouldn’t have missed this craziness for anything.”
    Suddenly the constant screech stopped.
    The container lurched so wildly that Toto lost his grip and came tumbling downhill toward Sam. He tumbled slowly— they were in reduced gravity—and Sam grabbed him.
    “The people back at the facility would have liked to meet Dekka,” Toto said, with his face inches from Sam’s.
    “I’m sure they would.”
    Another wild lurch and suddenly the container was sliding, dropping away forward. It was like a sled running down well-packed snow on a long slope.
    “I can’t see the ground,” Dekka said. “I don’t want to move. You have to tell me when we’re close.”
    Sam peered into the dark below, trying to pick out anything that might tell him where they were, where they were heading. But it was hills and scrubland and he’d never seen any of it from miles up in the air.
    They were moving fast, sliding down an invisible slope, letting gravity pull them forward as much as downward.
    “My—,” Dekka cried out.
    Like an elevator with the cable cut, the bottom dropped. The container spun