Excerpt from“ Autonomous” a Novel by Lauren Yousha
“ This way. This way,” the Talker repeated. The passengers on the Alira all hustled and bustled to get to their designated area.
“ Come on,” called Dakota to me, already ahead of the pack. I struggled to keep up with him. We were pushed to a big sign looming overhead that read Sky Patrol in big letters. One of the patrollers directed us to the big line of Alira riders and told us to wait our turn. As we waited in line, I looked ahead to remind myself of the process of Sky Patrol. I had only ridden the Alira twice before.
“ Dakota Sarriot. Kasey Sarriot,” the Talker called our names through the loudspeaker in her monotone voice.
“ Now,” I told Dakota,“ we walk up to one of the patrollers. The will be with us for 15 minutes, then our session will be over and we will be able to continue our journey to Toronia.”
We were stationed with a male patroller with eyes as hard as steel. He motioned for us to enter his session room. We took our seats and the patroller found his behind a long, brown desk.“ Where are you two headed today?” he started.“ Toronia,” answered Dakota, strongly. The man scribbled something in his notebook.“ Age of Dakota Sarriot?” He looked up at us, expectantly.“ 12.”“ Age of Kasey Sarriot?”“ 14,” I answered. He wrote scribbled something else.“ What have you parents said to you before they, uh, died?” he interrogated. Nobody had ever asked us that question before.“ We don’ t have to tell you anything,” spat Dakota.“ Oh I would, if I were you,” the patroller threatened.“ Ok,” I agreed, gesturing for Dakota to sit down.“ I remember one thing my father said to me right before he disappeared. It was a song that went like this: Dark blue waters,