08/15/2025
New bit for Near Future book 5, by Jennie Moench:
She looked back at the mountain peak, “I wonder if we could fly up there and see it?” She looked over at Aarar, who nodded, then produced a jetpack. Together they lifted up and closer to the mountain top. A small brown ribbon began to appear between the tall trees and vegetation. It grew closer to the edge of the shear cliff, at the peak of the mountain. At the top, they could see a fence, with signage that warned visitors not to cross, but on one end of the fence was a well worn footpath that would have taken a hiker to the very edge.
Aarar looked down at it, imagining his cousin being pushed by the husky police officer, over the edge. The thought made him angry. But, then, Cynthia broke the silence. “Aarar, I wonder if, when they were up here, they could have been seen from the cameras below?”
The question instantly perked up his interest, “Do they archive the footage?” he asked, dangling in mid air above the precipice.
Cynthia was already looking up the information. “Yes! They do. It’s public information and is often used for wildlife studies!” she read aloud. So, the footage gathered from the cameras at the foot of the mountain was available!
She quickly, located the site. “Aarar, we can go there now!”
He trembled, but bit his lip, then nodded agreement. “Yeah, let’s see it!”
They instantly found themselves back on the trail below the mountain, but now the air was clear, as the footage was taken before the volcanic eruption. The two of them, looked around themselves, it was more beautiful with a clear view of the top of the huge rock that jutted out of the side of the mountain near the top. “Okay, now let’s skip ahead to late afternoon, when the park would be closing. Aarar looked around himself as time was sped up. The clouds moved quickly across the sky and sounds were distorted. Birds flew like missiles around them, people appeared and disappeared and the sun was racing across the sky. Soon, it was dim. Then, Aarar pointed and called out, “There she is!”
Cynthia looked in the direction of his pointing finger. She stopped the video, and stared into the face of the woman whose death, Aarar was obsessed with, his cousin, Janet. And there, beside her, a casually dressed police officer, James Aldridge. Janet was wearing a back pack, and smiling brightly, completely oblivious to her fate. Cynthia unpaused the video, letting it play out at normal speed. Aarar’s heart was breaking as he watched her walk through him and toward her fatal destination, merrily, chatting away to her killer.
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