Space Wolves

Riley found the body heading home from the desalination plant. Denim-clad legs jutted into the path from behind the crumbling block of the twenty-first century building the plant workers used as a makeshift bar. The harsh rays of daylight ensured no one was around but her. Most people on Earth didn’t have her tolerance for solar radiation. Riley, however, had spent the first eight years of her life in space—born during her dad’s ten-year rotation on a space station. There hadn’t been any ozone to shield her from radiation exposure there.

The legs belonged to a stranger. His face lacked the usual protective covering, and his blistered, discolored skin indicated radiation poisoning. After nudging him with her sneaker, she set down her clean water packs and checked his pulse. There wasn’t one, so she rummaged through his pockets for an ID.

His jacket’s inner pocket held his wallet and a thick envelope. Thicker than anyone doing legal work would have out in the suburbs. Riley threw a look behind her before opening it. When she saw the stack of hundred-dollar bills inside, she was glad she’d been cautious.

After counting all the bills, she let out a breath of laughter. Twenty thousand dollars. It was enough to buy a year’s supply of clean water rations, but she could hear her mom’s voice in her head. The credit system ensures everyone can access water, and that’s what matters most.

The wallet had another fifty dollars in it, a UN credit card, and the man’s ID.

Name: Jamison Portman

DOB: August 30, 2185

Place of Birth: Pittsburgh

Occupation: None

He was only twenty-one, just six years older than Riley. Her mom’s and aunt’s IDs also read ‘None’ for occupation, so she knew what it meant. He wasn’t a government employee and he wasn’t in the lottery for off-world work. She also knew there was only one gig on Earth that paid so much in cash—smuggling people onto space-station-bound shuttles. They called themselves space wolves.

Riley put twenty bucks back in his wallet and pocketed the rest. No need to make it look like a robbery. He was dead when she found him, and however that happened, clearly it hadn’t been to rob him.

She wanted to run home to tell Mom and Aunt Bobbie about the money, but the water packs were too heavy. Any drop wasted was one too many. Instead, she carefully tucked the envelope into her underwear, rebalanced the packs on her shoulders, and continued along the dusty pathway toward home.

- - -

Mom, Aunt Bobbie, and her younger cousin, Charley, were beating the linens clean under the shade of the porch when Riley arrived home. Even in the deep shadows, they all wore their head coverings to protect from the radiation.

Riley’s and Charley’s dads were brothers who’d both gotten lithium mining work on Mars years ago. That was how they could live in the suburbs—government subsidized housing for all Mars workers’ families. Though there wasn’t much out here besides housing and the desalination plant. Their closest neighbors were ten miles away, and the plant workers all lived in the city and commuted.

“Took you a while. Was there a line?” Mom asked.

“No line. Hang on.” Riley continued into the house to put away the water packs by their indoor garden. She ran back outside, yanking the envelope from her underwear. “I found something!”

“Clearly not your sense of decency,” Charley quipped.

“Trust me, you all would’ve hid it the same way.” Riley opened the envelope as they crowded around her.

“Holy crap!” Charley cried.

“Where did you find this?” Mom asked.

“It was on a dead man. A stranger,” Riley explained. They’d all seen dead people before, especially back when they’d lived in the city.

“Out here?” Aunt Bobbie frowned.

“Yeah, he was by the bar. I think it was over-exposure to the sun. I don’t know, but he wasn’t going to miss the money.”

“And nobody saw you?” Mom asked.

“No, I checked. No one’s ever out in full daylight.”

“You think he was a space wolf?” Aunt Bobbie asked Mom.

Mom nodded with thoughtful brows. “Must’ve been.”

“I thought so, too,” Riley said.

“If he was, I bet there’s more. I bet they’re doing a run.” Aunt Bobbie’s eyes lit up as she glanced at Mom. “Last year when they came ’round, I heard it was ten grand a head. This could buy you two a seat!”

“But what about you guys?” Riley looked between Aunt Bobbie and Charley, unease churning her stomach. This hadn’t been what she’d had in mind when she’d taken the cash off the space wolf.

“It’s your money, dear. You found it,” Aunt Bobbie said.

“You two should come anyway.” Mom grasped Aunt Bobbie’s hand. “Maybe it’s only five a head now. More shuttles are going these days, it must be easier to slip people on them.”

Their worry lines creased at the idea of more shuttles. Riley knew what it meant, even if no one would tell her. Earth was dying.

“You should come. It’s worth a shot,” Riley said.

“It’ll be fun to see either way!” Charley said.

“We should hurry. They’ll probably leave for the launchpads before dusk.” Aunt Bobbie ushered them indoors.

“Pack light, Riley,” Mom ordered.

Riley bit back a laugh as she grabbed Charley’s hand and raced to their room.

“Like we have anything to pack!”

“I know, right?” Charley laughed.

They tossed a couple changes of clothes in a backpack. Charley tried to add some ballpoint pens and paper, but Riley stopped her.

“Those won’t work in space.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, the ink won’t flow without gravity. My dad explained it to me when we first moved to Earth after his rotation ended.” Riley brightened as she realized she would see her dad again much sooner than expected.

“You know so much! It’s good you’re going,” Charley said and set the ballpoint pens down on their shared school desk.

“Well, hopefully you’re coming too. Don’t think you’re getting your own room so easily.” Riley grinned.

“Do you think you’ll get to see our dads?”

“I hope so. It’s a long trip to Mars though, so not right away.” Riley stood. “I’m gonna prep some water pouches for all of us.”

Charley nodded and went back to contemplating the contents of their desk. Riley left the room as she slipped their school tablets into the backpack.

While Riley made fast work of the water pouches, she overheard Mom and Aunt Bobbie’s hushed voices drifting in from Mom’s bedroom.

“What will you do?” Mom asked.

“Same as always. We’ll manage.”

“I know it’s domed to produce ozone, but I don’t want you having to go back to the city. It’s not safe. With the lottery closed, people will only become more desperate,” Mom said.

“It won’t come to that. There’s still six months until full daytime curfew starts outside the city’s dome. Plus, we have the indoor garden. We shouldn’t have to move.”

Riley swallowed thickly. Six months was even sooner than she’d expected for radiation levels to become critical. Charley and Aunt Bobbie had better be able to come with them.

- - -

A crowd swarmed the pickup point Aunt Bobbie said the space wolves used last time—a disused parking lot for a long-gone shopping mall. Riley recognized most of the people from the lines at the desalination plant. The crowd’s size further solidified Earth was nearing its end. Everyone wanted off. She clutched Charley tighter. Maybe if she didn’t let go of her, they’d just let her come with them for free.

Two men hovered above them on the roof of a van so dusty it was hard to believe its original color wasn’t brown. The shrill buzz of women begging formed an undercurrent occasionally pierced by the space wolves’ baritone shouts of, “Only those with money! No credits!”

Mom and Aunt Bobbie forged into the throng, Riley and Charley close behind. When people pushed in as they got closer and it became impossible to move, Mom started to yell, “We have money!”

The bigger man jumped down, moving bodies out of his way to clear their path to the van.

“How much you got?” His weathered voice didn’t match his youthful face.

“We have twenty thousand. Surely you can take all four of us for that,” Mom said.

“Ten a head. Only two.”

“You’re certain?” Mom pressed.

“Final offer,” he said.

“You two go. It’s your money,” Aunt Bobbie insisted.

Mom looked between her and Charley. Riley’s chest tightened as she realized this would be goodbye.

“We’ll be fine.” Aunt Bobbie hugged Mom.

“We’re leaving. You coming or not?” the man asked.

Mom furrowed her brow and nodded, pulling out the money.

“You and your daughter?” he asked after he counted the bills and tucked them into his jacket.

“Yes, us two.”

He pulled out a little black notebook. “Names?”

Mom told him. As he scribbled them down, a new voice screeched above the noise. “We have money! Wait for us!”

Aunt Bobbie was jostled away in the resulting disturbance. Riley reached for her, worried she may never get to hug her goodbye.

“Everyone, stay calm,” the man atop the van boomed, gun held up for emphasis.

The man on the ground opened the van door for Riley and her mom, barking at them to get in. Five pairs of eyes peered at them from inside.

Before Mom and Riley could climb in, shouts erupted when the newcomer with money shoved people out of her way. The bigger space wolf quickly set down the notebook on the van’s floorboard to reach for his gun.

“Stay calm!” he yelled, his attention turning to the crowd.

In the tussle, Aunt Bobbie and Charley were pushed toward the van. The newcomer finally reached the front; a stout little thing with two young children clinging to her side.

“How much you got?” the space wolf asked her.

“Fifteen.”

“It’s ten a head. I can only take one.”

“It was five last time!”

“Last time isn’t this time.”

As the woman argued, Riley noticed Aunt Bobbie pick up the black notebook from the floorboard.

“I’ll just write us in. They won’t know the difference,” she whispered to Mom.

“Bobbie, wait,” Mom began, but it was too late.

“Put it down,” the man on top of the van said.

The other space wolf turned sharply, taking aim at Aunt Bobbie.

“I was just looking,” she said, dropping the notebook.

The man shot.

Aunt Bobbie fell.

Charley screamed.

“No!” Mom cried.

Riley gaped as red spread across Aunt Bobbie’s blouse.

The crowd erupted in panic.

“We gotta go! Now!” The space wolf atop the van jumped down to the driver’s side.

“Get in!” Mom shoved both Riley and Charley inside the van.

“You paid for two!” The man who killed Aunt Bobbie yanked Charley by the ankle, but Riley gripped her shoulders tightly.

“Take her instead,” Mom said to him over the noise.

Riley’s eyes widened. “What?”

The engine roared to life.

“Take her!” Mom insisted.

“Fine!” He let go of Charley, who scrambled against Riley, clawing into her cousin like a drowning person would a lifesaver.

“Take care of her,” Mom said to Riley. “Find your dad.”

“Mom!” Riley choked out.

Her mom’s eyes were the last thing she saw before the van door slammed in her face. Their afterimage seared into her mind. Another passenger helped her and Charley into a seat as the van jerked forward. As her cousin burrowed into her, Riley wished she’d never found the space wolf.