Page 19 of N8
“I know every ATM between here and my apartment.” Turning around in her seat, she looked at each of them. “I need to withdraw as much money as I can before they cancel my bank accounts. I don’t know if they can do that, but we can’t take the chance. Plus, I’ll need to cut up these cards afterwards. They could also trace any transactions I make.”
“How do you know all this?” N8 asked in amazement.
She shot him a guilty look. “Too many spy movies.”
“Spy movies?”
Reaching over, she laid a hand on his arm. “For the record, every TV show, every movie, every documentary or news program they fed you was deliberately chosen. If you’d checked, you would have seen there was nothing given to you that was copyrighted after nineteen ninety. That’s because they didn’t want to break the illusion of the nuclear war. They wanted to keep you in the dark by making you think the war occurred way back at the end of that year, and what you were watching was preserved in their archives.” She glanced at them all. “That’s why you’re ignorant of modern technology.” Grabbing the door handle, she added, “I’ll just be a sec.”
She went inside the little glass cubicle and punched a computer keyboard. She did that a few more times before leaving it and rejoining them.
“I can only get three hundred dollars at a time off my cards, so I’ll have to hit the next ATM to do it again. Here.” She shoved a wad of bills at N8. “Hold onto these.”
“You have a plan,” T8 stated matter-of-factly.
Cydney nodded. “I’m also laying down a paper trail for them to follow. I’m hitting every ATM between the facility and my apartment until I get as much money as I can. I also maxed out all but one of my credit cards. That one I’ll save for the grocery store.”
N8 stared at the money she’d given him. They knew about money, but they’d never had to worry about using any sort of legal tender. The food, their housing, their clothes, and everything else they had or used was always given to them. It had been drilled into them that payment for goods and services were in exchange for labor and other forms of work. That was why they had to go to the room referred to as the central office every day and do formulaic calculations, score scientific algorithms, create graphs or spreadsheets, and perform any other sort of jobs on the computers that were necessary. For their work, they were allowed to eat, have a place to sleep, and have videos to watch.
“Because that’s the way life is now during this post-nuclear time.”
“What?” Cydney gave him a quick look as she maneuvered the car through traffic.
N8 realized he’d spoken aloud. “Nothing.”
They stopped twice more. At the last ATM, she announced, “That’s it. I’ve wiped out my savings and checking account. Now it’s to the market.”
“What are we going to get at the market?” F8 inquired.
“Food. Drinks. I know you don’t understand half of what I’m telling you, but you have to trust me on this. I can’t risk using my credit cards after we leave the store. Not to get something to eat, or at a motel. It’ll all have to be paid for in cash.”
“What happens after we use all the cash?” K8 asked.
Cydney shook her head. “Guess we’ll have to cross that bridge after we come to it.”
N8 noticed she took them to the same market she’d gone to earlier. “They’re still open?”
“Most places like this are open twenty-four hours a day.” Finding a parking slot, she stopped the car, turned off the engine, and looked back at them. “You can come in, but try to stick with me. If you see something you want or think we need, put it in the basket. But try to avoid anything that will need to be cooked or kept refrigerated.”
“Cydney, we don’t know what needs to be cooked,” K8 told her.
“That’s okay. You can ask me, or put it in the basket anyway. I’ll sort it out before we check out.”
They got out of the car and hurried inside, but they got no farther than the entrance when they all stopped to stare in wonder at the interior. Cydney grabbed K8’s arm and tugged on it.
“C’mon, guys! We don’t have much time!”
They reluctantly trailed behind her. N8 positioned himself at the rear to prevent stragglers as Cydney grabbed a big metal cart and headed directly for the section where the fresh fruits and vegetables were laid out. Despite her continuous urging, he knew they were taking longer than she liked, but it couldn’t be helped. Everything they saw was new, exciting, and wondrous. This was a world they’d never believed existed, or no longer existed, and to be able to witness it, to be able to smell, and hear, and see all it contained, was mind-blowing.
T8 picked up a box with the picture of a piece of chocolate cake on the front. “This looks good.”
Cydney gave it a cursory glance. “It needs to be cooked. Put it back. We’ll grab some sweets from the bakery on the way out.”
They bypassed a meat department on their way to an aisle filled with all sorts of breads and bagels. N8 noticed how she loaded several loaves, and added six jars of peanut butter to the cart.
“What kind of jelly or jam do you like? Grab what you want and put in in the basket,” she ordered them
G8 pulled a box of instant oatmeal from a shelf. “Cydney, how can we tell if it needs to be cooked?”
