The Conversion Bureau: Rays of Starlight

It was a strange day. The sky was a grey blanket, the world was ending and anomalous tears in space-time threatened to consume you at any moment. It could have been worse though. Two friends walked through empty streets, more carefully than they were used to, thanks to the appearance of 'wormholes' in their city.

"We gotta keep it slow, man. We don't wanna run right into a hole."

"Well, the way I see it is that the longer we stay out here, the more likely it is we'll have one appear right on top of us anyway. The sooner we get out of this hotspot, the better."

"Yeah, I guess. We still wanna be able to see them if they're just in front of us."

"We've got two good pairs of eyes between us. Stay sharp and we'll be okay."

The pair of young men navigated the abandoned streets slowly, constantly alert to the signs of a wormhole as they walked. The part of town they were in had been evacuated nearly overnight. Living alone and sleeping odd hours meant they'd missed the main convoy to the next town away from the Barrier. Wormholes made conditions too dangerous for everyday life, as they could appear anywhere, with barely any warning.

Skyscrapers loomed on all sides, vast stone monoliths of a rapidly ending age. They were empty now, save for whatever people had no longer needed. Documents, stationery - the general detritus of bureaucracy, were abandoned in the face of survival. Their footsteps echoed, drawing attention to the fact that there were no other sounds to be heard when they stopped.

"Any word from the others?"

“Last thing I heard was that Pete’s been taken.”

“Damn.”

The two shared a moment of silence. They hadn’t known Pete that well, but he was a friend. That was worth more than anything these days

“What about everyone else?”

"I think they were gonna keep moving inland. Well, last I checked, that's what they were planning. Internet's been on the blink since the storm, so I haven't been in touch with them."

"I hope they made it out."

"Yeah, same. How far west do we have to go?"

"I checked some maps, if we follow the highway, it's around a hundred and thirty clicks to the next town."

"Oh jeez, that's gonna take a long time on foot. We're gonna have to find more supplies."

"Yeah. The city does extend west around a third of the distance though. There should be plenty of food and other supplies in the buildings."

"Priority one is heading west then."

"Yep."

No one knew exactly what the wormholes were. It was commonly believed that they were a symptom of Emergence, a consequence of the Barrier having grown so large. Anything that entered a wormhole vanished without a trace. Neither thaumaticist nor physicist could explain the phenomena, and no attempt to see what was in the wormholes had yet been successful. As far as the world was concerned, they were a one-way ticket to oblivion. It was no different than any other ignoble end. You were just gone.

"We should have hit the road while we could still drive."

"No, really?,” one of them deadpanned, “I wasn't gonna be the first to say it."

"I know, I know... Just my damn hindsight kicking me where it hurts."

"We just gotta stay focussed. If we're careful and lucky, we can make it out of here."

Their plan was to head west, and keep going until they reached the antipodal point from Emergence. This would eventually put them on the ocean, but they hoped there’d be ships waiting for them on the western coast. It had taken the Barrier practically reaching their doorsteps to get them moving, but now they knew just how close it was. Once they made it far enough away on foot, they could find a vehicle and make the journey across the open desert, probably with a solar car.

The main issue with vehicular transport were the wormholes. If you were travelling too fast, by the time you’d noticed one you couldn’t avoid it. The build-up of thaumic energy seemed to cause them, so getting away from the Barrier was their number one goal. WorldGov were trying their best to find a solution, but in the meantime they would help with moving people. Much to everyone’s chagrin, the equestrians were as unaffected by wormholes as they were by the Barrier. The equestrians who remained on Earth took it upon themselves to help out now more than ever. After all, they’d lost friends and family to the wormholes too.

“If we get to the city limits before sundown, we should stay the night in the houses anyway. That’ll be our last chance to stock up on water.”

“Right. In the meantime, if the wormholes aren’t somehow worse on our way out of town, we should reach this camping store by midday.”

“Alright then, let’s keep go- Get back!”

Some dust had risen from the ground and a faint breeze could be felt by both of the travellers, causing them to freeze in place. Once fully formed, the wormholes could be spotted by the way light distorted as it passed through them. If one was only just appearing however, it was a different story. The only warning you’d get was a slight breeze toward where it was opening, then a full blown wormhole would open in seconds.

It might have just been the wind, but there was no guarantee of that. They stood still for another moment, and the wind quickly died down. It was just naturally occurring breeze.

“Fuckin’ hell, I wasn’t scared of the wind before. This is crazy.”

“I’d rather be on edge than in a wormhole. Come on, let’s keep going.”

The two went on, weaving through the anomalous areas, heading ever westwards. It was tense, but they were doing alright. It was when they reached the river which bisected the city that they realised they were in trouble.

“Are there any other crossings?”

“The only one I can see from here is a railway, a few kilometres... northwest. Do you recognise its towers from here?”

“Ah yeah, I know the crossing. I’m gonna guess that the bridge to the east isn’t gonna be any nicer than this.”

“Probably not.”

They looked down the pedestrian bridge in spanning the wide body of water between them and their route. It was a hot day, but the way the air shimmered down the length of the bridge was far too much than any reasonable amount of heat would make. There had to be anomalies on it, and there was limited room to manoeuvre past them. Their progress was already slow, and having to take a detour would mean spending more time, maybe even another day, in the city.

“The only other possibility I can see is that motorboat tied to the jetty down there, but I don’t see that working out so well either.”

“Hmm, yeah. Even if we went across slowly, we’d have trouble slowing down and avoiding wormholes. We also have no idea if its engine is working, or if it has fuel.”

“As much as more time in the city is a risk, I don’t know if we can cross this bridge safely. I reckon we’d have better odds with the railway bridge, it’s further from the Barrier.”

“Well, let’s go.”

Following the roads beside the river, they made their way to the crossing. The eeriness of how deserted the city was had begun to set in. This was once a metropolis, bustling with life any hour of the day. Since they’d set out, they hadn’t seen or heard from anyone. It was just the two friends, the anomalies and the road.

One of them spotted something odd, just to the side of the path. Its distinctive colour and shape caught his eye as they went past.

“Hold up, take a look at this,” he said, pointing at what appeared to be a handgun.

“Where the hell did that come from?”

“Police, I guess. No one else is permitted to carry around here.”

“They would never just leave it there, something must have happened.”

“Yeah… a wormhole maybe?”

“I guess. If there was one here, there isn’t any more.”

Cautiously, they approached the weapon and picked it up. It was heavy, and its metal parts were quite hot from sitting in the sunlight.

“No doubt about it, this is the WorldGov police issue pistol. My brother used to show me his gear when he wasn’t busy on duty.”

“Not much trouble in the smaller cities I guess.”

“More than you’d expect, actually. The safety’s off, let me just… fix that. There must have been a serious altercation of some kind.”

“Maybe people were getting violent in a panic to leave.”

“I dunno, this seems awfully strange, even given our own circumstances. The magazine isn’t full either, whatever that implies.”

A quick investigation of their surroundings does nothing to shed more light on what had occurred. The two looked around, puzzled.

“I can’t find any casings.”

“Same. If there was a wormhole it might have sucked them up, we’d never know.”

“True. We live in some strange times.”

The two of them stared at their newly acquired weapon for a few moments more.

“Well, I guess we should take this with us. The least we can do is hand it over the next time we come across civilisation.”

“Yeah, you should hold onto it. You seem to have more experience with them than I do.”

Continuing on, they made it to the crossing while the sun turned the bitumen roads into hotplates. It was scorching, and roughly midday by the time they reached the railway crossing. Getting across on foot meant using the rails themselves in some places, but there were significantly less wormholes here than on the other bridge. They could cross.

“Wait up,” one said, and pointed to something above them, “Look up there.”

There was something colourful in the sky, just around cloud level. It was quite a distance away, but they couldn't hear engines and it appeared to be completely stationary in the sky.

“That can’t be a bird.”

“A pegasus?”

“Yeah, must be.”

“Well, we’re not the only ones out here then.”

“I wonder why they’re here though, maybe searching for survivors like us.”

“Yeah, maybe.”