I’m not worried about the fact that if we don’t launch in time all these people will be stuck on this small island, and if that happens, the country will eventually fall into chaos. I’m worried because these people, the apparent top citizens of planet Earth and complete blood-suckers, have paid a lot of money and now we are risking a furious reaction from a several hundred angry members of the elite who are accustomed to only a five-star lifestyle. Telling them we spent all their money but never managed to get anything off the ground would not be received well. I imagine telling them that they should return to what’s left of their decadent mansions and try to reconstruct their privileged lives that fate so abruptly stole from them.
I storm into my room, ripping off the tie from around my neck. I feel the burning sensation through my shirt as I picture the few other ties that I have. My limited funds only stretched to very basic colours. When I walked into Lawrence’s suite this morning I looked my best; I had saved my favourite outfit for today, and now because of one small decision I find myself lost.
‘You took the thought out of my mind,’ a voice says from the other side of my room. I recognise it and I only look over out of instinct.
‘Great minds always think alike,’ she says, her naked body spread across the crisp, white sheets of my freshly made bed. She moves and stretches like a cat lying by a fire, taking her time, knowing that I’m watching. I stop still, my mind immediately mesmerised by the curves of her body. She lays flat, running a finger along her back and onto her firm ass before pointing at me and motioning me to come to her.
I shake my head, my sense of duty is waning, but somehow it still overrides every instinct pumping through my veins. ‘Destiny, you can’t be in here,’ I say, turning my attention back to the wardrobe. I focus my entire mind on hunting for an outfit that matches, something that won’t make my boss feel I’m challenging him and one that I haven’t worn a hundred times before. It somehow helps, as I forget where I am and think back to the day I left home. My mum did her best; bought the best she could with what money they had. She smiled when we laid the ten shirts and ten ties out on my bed. There was just about enough for two weeks and they were varied enough to stop people thinking they had seen me wearing the same thing, and discovering the pattern of how poor I really was.
‘Henry, I need you!’ Destiny shouts, still pinned to my duvet. ‘Please come to me.’
I take a deep breath as my loneliness takes over any sense of control and I slowly move to the bed. I soon realise my mistake as she lashes out, trying to pull me back into our endlessly complicated web of lies. I pull away, my mind unable to comprehend what will happen if this precious creature is found in the executive assistant’s bedroom, in this wrong place – in any room at all with me. I move too slowly, my reaction too late as a hand catches my shirt, creasing it as she grabs hold. My hands are soon all over hers, grappling and pulling her away, all the time shouting that she is damaging my shirt, wrecking my day, ruining everything.
She hears them too, the words that I cannot retract. ‘You sound like my fucking father!’ she shouts as she lets go and lies back down, choosing to finally cover herself with a sheet. ‘Why don’t you lighten up? It’s not like he will ever come into the room of one of his minions, is it?’
I sit on the edge of the bed and run a finger along her leg. ‘I know that, of course I do. But you don’t seem to get how important today is and how much is resting on us reaching an agreement with the Chinese.’
When she doesn’t answer I walk over to the window, looking across the beach and out across the ocean. This complex used to be one of the best resorts in the Caribbean, and until recently I could only have dreamed about coming here and taking a girl to this place for a summer vacation of sweet love and crazy nights. This place is probably all that remains of luxury life on Earth; it’s also empty, lifeless and so utterly incomplete. The only time it will mean anything again will be when all our guests arrive for a couple of nights ahead of the launch. Some are already here but many more will follow, and I’m sure it will be two days of partying and champagne toasts to the new world, as we send off the lucky ones who are getting to escape. They will most likely suck the final few drops of life out of this island and leave it with nothing, meaning that for the sake of my own survival, I hope I’m with them and not with those who must remain behind.
We all know that the people who call this place home will get left the landfill and a hangover from the special few. They will have to live off whatever remains, from the cast-offs of the super-rich. I find it ironic that those elite few will still need those on the ground to send up food and supplies, all of which will be locked away from those down below.
I turn to her, hoping she will at least listen, if not understand what troubles me, what should be troubling us all. ‘The world has changed a lot, but we don’t see it when we’re on this island. We’re sheltered, cut off from all the bad things that are happening. I heard earlier that the United Kingdom is now in big trouble. It was the only country still transmitting from that part of the world; we’re getting nothing from more than half of the planet. Iceland disappeared yesterday and no one knows why. The world is collapsing, Destiny, do you get that?’
She says nothing as I stare out the window at the people who are enjoying the beach. They are early arrivals from places that have already lost hope. Lawrence claims they have good reasons to be in the final few – they are the scientists, politicians and doctors who will be needed in the new world, and while I question their qualifications I am ultra-confident of their ability to pay the entry fee. I turn around, checking the reason for her silence, expecting to see that she is listening, reflecting – maybe even realising that what is happening may well be something that even her father cannot protect us from. She’s still on the bed but she’s not heard anything I’ve said. She is lying on her back, her legs in the air, gently teasing herself.
She lets out a long moan. ‘Forget world collapse. Get over here now and shove your big stick inside me!’
I shake my head, much like I do every time she makes this demand. Sometimes it’s coupled with a smile, nudging me to appreciate Destiny for the primal beast she is, but this time it comes from a place of genuine disappointment. She cannot see what is happening; her refusal to look beyond the moment and the simplest of pleasures proves that she doesn’t deserve what she will automatically get – passage out of here and a privileged life of luxury for as long as her precious daddy lives and leads us all. As much as I want it for her, I know she doesn’t deserve it, and if he doesn’t survive for as long as he hopes then it’s anyone’s guess whether her whining will be tolerated, or if she will simply be thrown overboard.
‘Fuck me now, Henry!’ She pushes her finger deeper inside herself and lets out a loud moan. ‘Fuck me now or I’ll scream so loud! I’ll scream until they all come running into your room to see what we’re doing together!’
I move towards the bed, pulled closer by a mixture of desperation and anticipation. The threat is not registering in my pants and only my mind wonders if perhaps I have let this go too far, that this once simple girl has now become my crazed lover. By the time I consider my choices I’m already on top of her, softly kissing her neck; her moans are subdued as she forces our bodies into an embrace.