A brown line stretched through a sea of green.
It was a simple road made of packed earth, running east-west in a straight line. It was surrounded by knee-deep grass that billowed with the wind. There was not a tree to be seen, near or far.
A single motorcycle darted westward down the center of the road. It was a sleek thing with an equally sleek and petite rider dressed in black leather. Behind the rider was a gleaming chrome carrier. Strapped to the carrier was a crumpled duffle bag that exuded a puff of dust whenever the bike hit a bump.
Beneath her black leather jacket, the driver was young, trim, and girlish. At odds with her youth was the sidearm holster at the back of her thick belt. In it was a semiautomatic handgun, the grip pointed upward and within easy reach. On her right thigh was a second holster, this one holding a revolver. The holster's thumb break had long since disintegrated; to keep the gun from falling out, she'd clamped the hammer onto a bit of string that was tied down at both ends.
She wore a sort of pilot's hat with a brim at the front and fleece-lined flaps covering her ears. Goggles drawn down over the earflaps held the hat in place. Below the goggle's band, the flaps fluttered in the wind; the image in her rear-view mirror looked like a jaunty puppy, but the eyes behind the goggles were weary and a little unfocused.
"What are you thinking, Kino?" The motorcycle's voice cut through the hypnotic thrum of its engine. "You have food. You should eat."
Kino's eyes cleared, sharpened. She glanced down at the bike, then up the road to where the outer walls of a town thrust above encircling trees.
Ten minutes, she thought. Tops.
"We're almost to a town. I don't wanna use up our food reserve if I don't have to." She wrinkled her nose. "Survival food should be eaten only as a last resort... like when you're near death."
At that moment, the front wheel hit a bump in the road. Kino lost her balance and the motorcycle tipped dangerously.
"Yikes!"
"Sorry, Hermes." Kino hurriedly got back on track and throttled down.
"Honestly," Hermes muttered. "We don't even know if that town has food. What do you plan to do if it's deserted?"
"If it is..."
"If it is?"
Kino shrugged. "Then it is."
Kino brought Hermes to a standstill as they reached the town's outer walls. Between them and the wall was a culvert with a drawbridge over it, like a medieval moat. A rather diminutive moat. She'd noticed a small building just to one side of the bridge – a guard shack, perhaps – and dismounted, albeit unsteadily.
She let go of his handlebars and set off for the building . . . without dropping his kickstand. He toppled over with a squawk of surprise. Kino wheeled around and grabbed the handlebars, but they only twisted in her hands and the bike keeled over onto his left side.
He wailed like an injured child. "Now look what you've done! You let me fall over! I can't get up, Kino! Get me up! Oh, this is gonna scratch my paint job all to pieces."
Kino leapt to raise the bike, but his weight was too much and her legs gave out. She sat down hard on the ground.
"What?" asked Hermes.
"I'm too hungry," Kino murmured. "No strength... woozy..."
"I told you to eat lunch! How many times do I have to repeat myself before you'll listen? Driving a motorcycle is a sport! It may not be as strenuous as riding a bicycle, but just handling the road vibration takes energy. You tire and your mind goes all numb with the drone of my engine and after that it just plain stops working and things you can normally do become extremely difficult, which results in simple mistakes – such as forgetting to eat – which can cause accidents." He paused. "Are you listening, Kino?"
There was nobody in the building.
A device like a giant vending machine dominated the foyer. It activated the moment Kino entered, asked her a few simple questions in a clipped but not unpleasant voice, and granted them entry. The drawbridge lowered.
"That was fast," said Hermes, leaning contentedly on his kickstand.
"Strange," said Kino, mounting and starting the engine.
"What is?"
"There was no one in there. Only a machine."
"You ate?"
"I ate," replied Kino with satisfaction, stepping back out onto the sidewalk. She glanced back into the restaurant as she reached Hermes' side.
"Was anyone there?"
"No one," she said, mounting the bike. "It was weird. Kind of like those old automats they used to have. Serve yourself... sort of." She looked around.
One-story buildings lined the street. To the west was an intersection with a traffic signal. The road beyond it ran straight, flanked by broad sidewalks, trees, and streetlights. In the distance, it disappeared into a forest. Beyond the forest, Kino assumed, lay the western wall and presumably another gate.
They were still nearly in the shadow of the eastern wall, so close they couldn't see the ends of it in either direction. Even from this vantage point, it was clear the town was extremely large and flat. A small and very quiet city.
Too quiet. Kino felt an unsettling itch building up between her shoulder blades, as if someone were watching, unseen.
"Sort of serve yourself, you said. What's that mean?"
"What? Oh... machines did everything. The food was amazing."
"Weird."
They'd not gone far on the long, straight road when a car pulled around a comer and drove toward them. Kino stopped the bike and waited. The car pulled to a stop no more than ten feet away. After a moment the door opened and a humanoid robot emerged. It was metallic, with very little pretense of humanity, really, but it spoke – in the same voice as the machine at the gate – welcoming them to the city and providing them with a map. Then it returned to its car and sped away.
Kino and Hermes explored the city for the better part of the afternoon, driving this way and that, up this street and down that avenue. By early evening, she was hungry again and went in search of another restaurant. She found one easily, but the interior – though spacious and immaculate – was as empty of people as the first had been.
Kino's order was taken by a machine that looked like a wheelchair with a computer sitting in it – it also had mechanical arms. The food that arrived was a dish like spaghetti (but not quite), a steak of unidentifiable meat, and fruit of a color she had never seen. Each course was served by a different machine, and yet another machine took her money after the meal was finished.
It was incredibly cheap.
The machine that had taken her order escorted Kino out of the restaurant, bidding her a pleasant stay, but didn't tell her the city's name.
Kino followed signs to a gas station to refuel Hermes. On the way, they saw neither people nor anything that gave the city a name. They did see another vehicle and chased it down, but it was only an unmanned street cleaner.
When they reached the deserted gas station, Kino filled Hermes' tank. The price per gallon was close to nothing.
They looked for a hotel after that. When they found one, it too was empty.
Big surprise! Kino thought.
It was also luxurious – spotless, outside and in. Marble statues lined the entry hall. A machine enshrined at the front desk handled the necessary business briskly. Like the restaurant, the hotel was modestly priced.
Kino pushed Hermes down the hall and into their room. The machine escorting them didn't blink at the idea that his guest wanted to keep her motorbike in her room instead of in the conspicuously empty parking lot.
It was by far the most magnificent room Kino had ever been in. "Are you sure this is the room?" she asked the attendant machine. "You didn't confuse my rank? You do know I'm not royalty? I'm not even rich. if you try to charge me extra later, I won't pay."
The attendant assured her that everything was quite in order, then left after noting that room service was available at any time of day or night.
"Tourists!" muttered Hermes. If he'd had eyes, he would have rolled them.
Kino showered in a needlessly large bathroom, donned new underwear and a camisole, and was about to do some laundry in the sink when she noticed a sign that indicated the hotel provided this service for free. She called the front desk, and a machine came, received her clothes, and promised to have them clean by morning.
Kino and Hermes spread out their map on the carpet. The hotel was quite close to the city's eastern entrance, in an area the map called the "East Gate Shopping District." The city was circular and so large that they had covered only a fraction of its breadth that day. Nowhere on the map was it named.
In the city center was the Central Government District, also circular. To the south was a large lake. To the north was an industrial district, labeled – appropriately – Industrial District. Everything else – fully half the area of the city – was labeled Residential Area.