Extinct Doesn't Mean Forever by Phoenix Sullivan (easy readers txt) 📕

had a family. He didn’t understand family and he never would. Let alone why I cared about mine, even though they’d pretty much disowned me when I opted out of the Graduation Module and went for Manual Labor Status III. There was no point in getting mad at Vin.

“Forget it, mano,” I told him. “They’re all gone, and that’s it. It’s just us now.”

“You, me and a phrockin’ city full of Meshies and PinniPods!” He grinned through a mouthful of PinniPods, brown gunk oozing between his teeth. I glanced towards the back of the store where a face was plastered up against a tinted glass window in the door that must have led to the storeroom. The tint in the glass made the splatter of gunk on the window look like the melted candy smeared around Vin’s mouth. I just wanted out of there.

“Forget the candy,” I said. “Let’s see what else we can find.”

Vin’s brown-edged grin grew wider. “Like Beppies?”

“Whatever. Candy stores aren’t the only ones with old-style doors.”

Vin let the candy drop out of his arms. “Mano, you are a phrocking genius. Let’s hit it.”

I hadn’t done any of the hard stuff for a couple of months. I was kind of thinking of cleaning up; not that I’d have said that to Vin. I just told him my belly was acting up and a couple of minutes after he’d taken his first Funbo or whatever, he couldn’t have cared what planet I was on let alone what I was or wasn’t taking. He was still roaming from job to job, just loading, pushing, whatever, getting the cash he needed to keep him in DrinCuls and Beppies. He didn’t seem to have noticed that I’d been at PhillFast for three months or so, which was like a record for either of us. The work was easy and the people were nice, talking about maybe promoting me after a while. I’d been thinking about keeping on there, maybe saving up to get my own place — like a newer unit. Without Vin and with StayClosed doors that actually worked.

But right now I could really have done with some of the hard stuff. Then maybe I could stop thinking about the things I was looking at.

Pity there wasn’t any hard stuff to come by. Turned out Pharma stores and DrugBanks were right up to date with their StayClosed doors. And it wasn’t any easier to get through StayClosed from the outside than it was from the inside.

“Phrocking doors!”Vin tossed aside the Metallo bench he’d been using to ram the doors of the Drama & Stars DrugBank. The legs of the bench were bent, the StayClosed glass unscratched. “What the krig is in that stuff?”

I was sitting on the sidewalk, with my back against the wall of the BloMo store next door. I’d given up on the doors already. “Something no man shall ever put asunder…” I intoned in a deep voice, mimicking the StayClosed ad that had perpetually played on the city screens — the same ones that still loomed above every store, blank and silent for the first time. My voice echoed along the empty street. Without the gabble of the screens everything seemed too loud.

Vin glanced nervously from one end of the street to the other, and then narrowed his eyes at me. “Don’t freak me out, mano.” His forehead gleamed with sweat and his fingers twitched against his thighs, curling up like he was getting a grip back on the Metallo bench. I wondered how many Beppies he’d had the night before. And the night before that. He’d been rolling pretty strong for a while.

“Rechill, mano. We’ll find one,” I said. “On the edge of City Central, near the river or over the Other Side, there’ll be some places with the regular old doors.”

He curled his lip. Then, so fast I almost missed the change, the big old Vin smile flashed over his face. “Better get moving then, mano. Wouldn’t wan’ to miss out on any of the fun.”

There were other people around. Not many. They all moved past us pretty fast, like they didn’t want to be seen. I got that. I wouldn’t have wanted to get too close to us either. A couple of girls, kind of ripe-looking in tight-fitting Huddlesuits, had crept past on the other side of the road while Vin was trying to crash the DrugBank. He hadn’t noticed them and I didn’t say anything.

I stood up. “Better move on, then. Want anything to eat? This BloMo’s got the regular doors.”

“Naw, mano. Mostly I’m just hot.” A bead of sweat from his forehead dribbled down his cheek, like a dirty tear.

I was hot too, and I hadn’t worked even half as hard as Vin. My Bluesuit felt sticky. Which shouldn’t happen. They’re supposed to adapt to any standard ambient temperature.

But what if the temperature wasn’t standard? I looked up at the sky. Blue, like normal.The sun. It was the sun that was different. Instead of the usual pale lemon disk that should have floated above us like a kid’s AirPuff, an angry orange-red fireball glared down at me, searing my eyes with a flash of pain. “Phrock!” I looked away as fast as I could, but I still saw an orange globe – no, two orange globes, one stamped on the front of each eye. I shook my head, blinking fast, until they faded.

Vin sniggered. “Shake it out, mano!”

“The sun, Vin — no don’t look at it!” With an effort, he looked back at me. “It near burned my eyes out. The Vault’s filters are down. It’s full blaze up there.”

Now we needed a Pharma for more than Beppies — we’d need SunGear, SkinPro, LanoFill — all the stuff people needed for trips outside the Vault. Now we were going to need them inside, too. Or maybe enough Beppies not to care about fried skin and dried lungs. No wonder the girls had crept past. It wasn’t us — although it might have