Katie's Run (Part 1 - A Farmpunk Contest Entry)

Katie perched on the old iron rafters, hidden away in her sanctuary within the domed cell. Her pale legs dangled over the girders, the untied laces trailing from her swinging feet.

The old man worked on the crop-duster parked below, it’s metal skin peeled back to reveal the intestinal tangle of wiring. The rain-plane ran the farm, sensors throughout the fields calling for more moisture, more fertilizer, as required, the faithful metal bird delivering them where they were needed. Charlie looked after the self-governing plane, repairing faults, monitoring the adaptive code.

Katie wasn’t old enough to remember the cities, the open fumes, the food shortages. She didn’t need to remember to be afraid of the stories. The outside had been destroyed by her parents generation, the earth razed. Her whole world was under the dome, the transparent hexagonal panels protecting her from the choking air.

Hidden away in the barn, a child who should not be there, she made her own friends. The harvester, Hes did an amazing job of french plaiting her hair with his many spindly arms. He was pretty good at catch, but she couldn’t risk playing outside for long. Charlie, a farming engineer, was supposed to be alone in the agricultural dome.

Katie had only been a baby when he took her in, she had been easy enough to keep hidden then, small enough to share his food rations with.

Things had been getting harder, she had turned seven that year. Crops grew well on the farm, the cleansed bubble of earth protected from contamination, but they couldn’t risk taking a single tomato. It was all counted and cataloged before it was even picked.

Charlie was working deep in the bowels of the plane, the air filled with the scratchy warble of his record player.

They didn’t hear the dome airlock open over the happy music.

---

Tucked up below the tin roof, Katie saw the heavy door begin to shift before the old metal hinges began to screech.

She froze. Charlie always warned her when they were expecting visitors.

Two burly looking men in black suits tugged on the sliding door, pulling it back to reveal an aged man in a faded tweed suit.

“Charles Taylor?”

Charlie had disentangled himself from the plane, Katie watched as he dashed towards the door, keen to conduct the conversation outside.

“Aye, and who might you be?”

“Reece Weatherby, District Supervisor. Is it just you out here?”

“Aye, been alone here since… well since I got here. What can I do for you folk?”

The two black suited men closed in on him.

“Charles, I need you to come with me”

“Right now?”

Charlie hesitated, despite the men clasping his arms.

“I can’t just off and go, the bird ain’t flying, the crops, what if they need...”

Reece cut him off, “Someone will be getting here tomorrow, they will last until then”

The colour drained from Charlie’s face, for a moment he seemed at a loss for words.

Katie strained from the iron rafters, trying to catch the conversation.

“Well make sure to tell them, there’s a faulty panel at the edge of the orchard, bit loose, I noticed it this morning and ain’t got round to fixing it up”

---

Fear gripped Katie’s heart as the car slipped away between the fields. The record stuttered, each harsh click jilting in the silence.

She was alone. Charlie wasn’t coming back, if someone else found her, they would take her away. Children lived in their own farms, building the nanotech panels that made the domes, tending their own fields. The bright ones anyway. Those who couldn’t adapt to what was needed, disappeared.

Katie edged along the girder, suddenly afraid of the height she always played at. The crack of the record needle jarred through her, the need to turn it off spurring her on.

She cautiously descended the ladder, listening for the low buzz of the car returning.

Finally, she got to the bottom, and lifting the needle, cut the sputtering crackle.

In the silence, tears broke free, running into childish sobs of desperation as she became more breathless.

“Katie, would you like me to braid your hair before we go?”

Hes had additional companionship qualities to help ease the loneliness of manning the farms, but he had taken a uncharacteristic liking to Katie.

Katie swallowed great gulps of air between sobs.

“Hes, this isn’t the time for that! They took Charlie! They’re going to come back and take me!”

“No Katie, you won’t be here when they get back.”

Confusion quelled her tears as she looked up, her eyes magnifying by the last unshed drops.

“I won’t?”

“Charlie told you what to do”

“He didn’t say anything!! He always promised he’d never let them take me, that he’d keep me safe.”

The tears returned in full force.

“Charlie told us exactly how to get out of the dome”

“Out of the dome? The TV said it’s too dangerous, the air will kill me!”

“He wouldn’t tell you to go outside if it wasn’t safe”

Katie turned it over in her mind. Hes was right, Charlie did mention a loose panel, a way outside, he wouldn’t do that if it wasn’t safe for her to go. The TV had always said it was toxic outside, but given that he had an answer for every question she could think of, Katie had come to believe there was nothing Charlie didn’t know.

She had never left the dome, not even when Charlie drove the solar wagon to the market domes, delivering the cataloged weekly harvest, restocking on prepackaged food rations. Her stomach churned at the prospect of leaving, but despite the overwhelming urge to hide, she knew she would eventually be discovered if she stayed.

---

The tool bag Katie carried had been emptied of its usual contents, stuffed with food rations, the misshapen bear Hes had painstakingly stitched her, and the oversized clothes she was used to.

She had waited for darkness to fill the dome before she crept out of the house. She slunk between the rows of corn, heading towards the orchard. Hes whirred out of the house, his flexible caterpillar treads churning up dust as he came after her.

Katie paused, whispering in the dark.

“Hes, what are you doing?”

The robot came to a grinding stop as he reached her.

“You will need me to plait your hair”

“Oh Hes, it’s ok, you stay here, the farm needs me.”

“Charlie always said, “This farm don’t need you alf as much as that girl””

His imitation of Charlie was spot on, it was uncanny to here the regional accent from the normally well spoken robot. Katie giggled a little despite her nerves.

---

The crops soon gave way to the orchard, the shining apples dark orbs in the shifting leaves.

They hurried between the trees, staying under the foliage. Katie paused for a moment, looking up at the adorned branches.

The dark gems called out, the scented promise of sweet crisp apple drifting in the air.

Katie couldn’t resist, those within reach fell to her bag. They would have enough to worry about when they found the harvester missing, she hoped they wouldn’t notice the stray apples.

The clear panels of the dome loomed before them, curved up in their honeycombed formation, the thick transparent bubble, filled with tiny nano solar cells, powered the farm.

The edge of her world.

It took a few minutes to find the loose panel, it wasn’t obvious, but Hes ran his metal pointed fingertips over the seals until he found where the connections severed.

Katie pushed on the panel, expecting it to turn for her. The thick, heavy way out didn’t budge.

“Is this the right one?”

“This panel is loose, the connections have been disconnected. Charlie did this.”

Katie pushed harder against the heavy pane.

“It’s not moving Hes!”

The fear on their heels was catching her up, panic crept across her face.

“Hes I can’t get out!!”

Hes rang his spindly fingers around the edge of the panel, he hooked the tips around the metal edging.

“I will move it, please stand back”

“It’s too heavy Hes”

The robot, only slightly taller than her, strained with the effort. His many thin arms, designed for gentling plucking fruit, were only strong enough to pull root vegetables. He began to bow under the effort, his arms arching as he leaned back, attempting to lift the panel out of place.

Katie, understanding his efforts, struggled to find a way to help. Her fingers danced over the seam, unable to grip. Finally, determined to assist him, she wrapped her arms about Hes’s cylindrical torso, adding her weight to his leverage.

With a slow groan, the clear panel began to shift, slipping out of the frame.

It took everything Hes had to stop the panel, finally freed, falling forwards and crushing them.

The crack of broken metal rang out in the darkness as his spindle arms snapped under the weight of the pane.

He couldn’t feel pain, he was a basic harvester unit, he only noticed the lack of feedback from the broken limbs.

By the time he lowered the huge panel before the opening, a few dozen of his hundreds of arm remained intact. The broken metal stems littered the ground.

“Hes!! Your arms!!”

Tears dripped from Katies cheeks as she looked up at his aperture.

“What have you done?”

“I moved the panel, I won’t let them take you!”

Katie hugged his metal form, the snapped arms attempting to return her embrace as she whispered,

“Thank you”

Phew, this is the first part of what I have come to believe is a dream I had as a child. I have asked so many people, and no one remembers this movie, but I loved Logan's Run as a kid, so I strongly suspect this was my own take, with a protagonist I could relate to. I ran out of time and words, so I am calling it part 1, hopefully this will spur me to finish the story. I have such a strong image of the fields below the dome, the plane, the crackly music, Katie watching the old man work, I am not sure I have done this justice, I may work on it more, the fear she feels alone, the uncertainty, the bravery needed to venture to the toxic outside may not have come though as much as I would have liked. I am just so happy that something prompted me to get it written down.

This is my entry to @blockurator first every farmpunk contest - hopefully not the last, a huge thank you to @blockurator for extending the deadline to give me chance to get this written, I just really hope this does count as farm punk!

Looking for more contests? Check out the latest round of Tell A Story To Me - just over a week left to enter!

Photo Credit which sadly, as it has been shared with no attribution required, doesn't seem to list to author.

Thank you very much for stopping by <3