Julia From Brockton Bay: A Refugee's Tale
Disclaimer: Worm, its characters, and its settings belong to Wildbow. The Galactic Milieu belongs to the estate of the late Julian May. I own neither and am writing this story for entertainment, not profit.
Author's Note: During the last year or so I have become fascinated by Wildbow's Worm universe, so fascinated that I've written a couple of crossover stories set in his universe as well as another crossover set in the late Julian May's Galactic Milieu/Pliocene Exile Universe. I decided to revisit my version of Julian May's Coadunate Galactic Milieu, only this time I'd use someone not only from a version of Earth Bet, but one of Taylor Hebert's tormentors from Winslow High School.
I gave some thought to using one of what Taylor called "The Triumvirate": Emma Barnes, Sophia Hess, and Madison Clements, then discarded them for different reasons. Sophia Hess would quickly find herself quickly under arrest and incarcerated by Milieu authorities, Emma Barnes would waltz away from trouble, and Madison Clements would be too likely to show contrition and also skate away from any sort of serious trouble (I later moved Madison through the Portal and made mention of her). However, I noted that a background character named Julia was also a member of their clique and was just about as awful as they were, so I decided that she was available to play with (I would have to flesh her out a bit: Wildbow hadn't decided to give her a surname and said nothing about her family).
For those readers knowing a thing or two about Julian May's Galactic Milieu, this story is set during the time of the Simbiari Proctorship.
-Julia From Brockton Bay—
A Juvenile Detention Facility near Fredericton, New Brunswick
Candida Preston's laptop dinged and a message appeared in a separate window: 2:30 appointment with Julia Marcotti. The girl was a new patient who'd been remanded to juvenile detention after being convicted of assault with bodily injury and theft. She looked at the time function at the bottom right hand corner of her computer screen. It was 2:25; Miss Marcotti should be here shortly. She saved her work, closed her application, then opened another one, one that would record her first session with her new patient.
There was a knock on the door as her new application uploaded.
"Come in," said Candida.'m
A sullen teenaged girl with light skin, brown eyes, and brown hair stood outside her doorway. "Are you the therapist?" she asked.
New England accent, working-class, thought Dr. Preston.
"Yes," said Candida. "I'm Dr. Preston. I'm with the staff. You must be Julia Marcotti, am I right?"
"Yeah," the girl replied warily.
"Well, come in and take a seat," said Dr. Preston.
"Thanks," said Julia, who promptly sat down in the metal chair.
"So, Julia, tell me about yourself," said the therapist. Julia never met this woman before but saw that she had a name tag that identified her as Dr. Preston. "You're one of those people from Brockton Bay, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I'm from the Bay," said Julia.
"Did you come alone or did you pass through the Portal with the rest of your family?" asked Dr. Preston.
"I came with my family," said Julia. "My Mom, my Dad, my little brother, and my little sister."
"And you and your family came through the Portal on May 18th, didn't you?" said Dr. Preston.
"If you say so," said Julia.
"I can talk to your parents or call the Commission for Disaster Relief if I need to, but the exact date you crossed over isn't that important," said Dr. Preston.
"You were a high school student in Brockton Bay, weren't you?" said Candida.
"Yeah, I was a sophomore," said Julia.
"Did you do well in school?" asked Candida.
"I got by," Julia replied.
"Did you have a lot of friends?" asked Candida.
"Yeah, I was in a good clique," Julia said indulgently.
"I'm told that your old school had a lot of problems with gangs and bullying," said Candida. The teen briefly narrowed her eyes before re-assuming a remarkably blank face.
"They never bothered me," said Julia.
"Did other children have problems with these gangs?" asked Dr. Preston.
"Yeah," said Julia. "Mostly kids who weren't white or Asian or who didn't belong to any of the gangs."
"I've read reports that your old school had problems with bullying," said Dr. Preston.
"Mostly the guys," said Julia. "Gangs, cliques, that sort of stuff.
"Any problems with the girls?" asked Candida.
The teen sneered, then snorted with disgust. "Probably crap from a lot of crybabies and losers," she said dismissively.
"So what brought you here to New Brunswick?" said Dr. Preston.
"My parents brought me here," said Julia, a slight tinge of resentment in her voice. "Don't you guys already know about Leviathan and the other stuff? Are you guys clueless?"
Candida gave the girl a thoughtful look but said nothing.
Julia scowled at her.
Dr. Preston looked at the American girl for a while, then said "So were you in town when this monster attacked your old city?" she said.
"No," said Julia. "My Mom and Dad had heard the warnings that the Bay was the most likely Endbringer target, so we went to a campground fifty miles inland before Leviathan hit. "
"So when did you leave, the day of the attack?" asked Candida.
"No, we left early," said Julia. "My parents knew there was an Endbringer attack coming and decided that it would be a good idea to get out of town before it got there. They made us pack Wednesday night. On Thursday, I went to school as usual, but once me and my brother and sister came home, my parents made us get into Mom's car and we left town. We went to a campground upstate."
This campground, was it in the US?" asked Candida.
"Yeah, it was in Maine," said Julia.
"So how was your trip to that campground?" asked Candida.
"It was a pain in the butt," Julia replied. "Traffic was backed up for miles, and it took forever to get out of town. My Mom yelled at Dad and said that he'd cut it too close, that if we missed getting killed by the skin of our teeth. Of course, Leviathan didn't hit Brockton Bay until a couple of days after we left," she grinned smugly.
"So how was the campground itself?" asked Candida.
"Dirty, messy," said Julia. "My Mom and Dad had booked for Whispering Pines, the place where we usually stayed at, but they'd already filled up. They sent us to another place about six miles away. The place was a shit-hole. There was nothing to eat but what we brought with us, the nearest store had run out of food and the Red Cross was too busy to get to us. There was no running water and the only water we had was from a couple of big tanks and the toilets were porta-potties that filled up fast. It rained before and after Leviathan hit the Bay and by the time we left the camp we were all dirty and filthy.
"So how did you feel about it?" asked Candida.
"I hated the place," said Julia, giving Candida another "Are you clueless" look. "I think my Mom and Dad did too. We'd stayed at Whispering Pines for years and when we needed a space, they told us to fuck off and sent us to that shithole."
"So how did your younger brother and sister see it?" asked Candida.
"They're kids and don't know any better," said Julia. "They thought it was an adventure."
"So how long were you there?" asked Candida.
"We were there about five days," said Julia.
"Did anything happen in the camp?" asked Candida. "I'd heard that some of those camps had troubles with crime, violence, and sexual assault."
"Not in our camp," Julia said dismissively. "A couple of people yelled at each other, some people's stuff and food got stolen, but nothing like that happened where we were."
"Did anything happen at the other camps?" asked Dr. Preston.
"I'd heard that some stuff happened elsewhere, but not where we were staying," said Julia.
"So what happened when you left that campground?" asked Candida.
"My parents had heard that people were being let back into the Bay during daylight and said that we were going to stop by the house," said Julia.
"And?" said Candida.
"And what?" said Julia.
"Did you all go back to your home or did you drive straight through the Portal?" asked Candida.
"No, we stopped by the house," said Julia.
"And what did you do there?" said Candida.
"My parents went to talk to the neighbors who'd stayed. They told me and the brats to look around the house for any stuff that we wanted to keep because we were going to be going to another camp after we left. They talked a long while. We got some stuff, my parents came back inside, they got some more stuff, then told us to get in the car. They said that Mrs. Torelli would look after the house while we were away."
"I asked Dad why we couldn't stay at the house, and he and my Mom said the house wasn't habitable because we didn't have any electricity or water. They both said that they weren't going to stay in town after dark and that was it."
So I asked him where were going, and he and Mom said that we're going to try another camp. I remember asking him if he was going to pick one as bad as the one we just left and him smiling and saying that we were going to stay at a better one."
"So I presume you left?" said Candida.
"Yeah, although my parents took their time about it," said Julia. "They drove around the old neighborhood as best they could, like they were sight-seeing or something, then only then did they head for the freeway."
"So what did it look like?" asked Candida.
"What?" said Julia.
"Your old neighborhood," said Candida.
"It was a mess," said Julia. "It's not like we saw any dead bodies or anything. The area around our house wasn't too bad, but there were a lot of roof leaks, windows were broken, trees were down, and there was a lot of trash out on the street. Our part of the hood didn't look so bad, but you could tell that most of the town was—messed up."
"And then?" asked Candida.
"My parents drove towards the freeway and brought me here," said Julia, her eyes narrowing and a bit of anger showing in her voice.
"Did you know you were coming to New Brunswick?" asked Candida.
"No," Julia said resentfully. "I knew my parents were taking us to another camp, but I thought that it was going to be another one in the States or maybe in the real Canada."
Candida clenched her fist and counted to ten before she spoke again.
"So when did you learn that you were coming to Earth Showa?" asked Candida.
"Like the last minute," said Julia. "We were heading east on the Interstate, but I thought we were heading into Canada, maybe get a hotel room, take a shower, something like that. I knew that the Portal was out that way and I could get a look at it, but I never thought we'd go through it."
-Worm—Milieu—Worm—Milieu—Worm—Milieu-
"So when did you learn that you were coming to Earth Showa?" asked Candida.
"Like the last second," said Julia. "I knew that the Porthole was there and I knew there was a turnoff for the Porthole. I could see it coming up: the state cops had put up some barriers and some temporary signs marking off the road, but then my Dad took the turn-off instead of going around it."
"Did you expect your Dad to take the turnoff?" said Candida.
"No," said Julia, more than a little anger in her voice. "I thought he was going to turn around and go back, maybe back out, but we got blocked in by a lot of other cars so Dad had no choice except to sit there or go forward."
"So did you go straight through the Portal?" asked Candida.
"No, we were stuck in line," said Julia. "It was like we were crossing the border or something. We waited like forever, then we reached a barrier, something like a cross between a toll gate and a train crossing. There were some state troopers in uniform with some state troopers in riot gear for backup. One of the ones in uniform and a raincoat waved at Dad."
-Worm—Milieu—Worm—Milieu—Worm—Milieu-
The Portal: Earth Bet Side, Late May, 2011
There was a barrier up ahead, closer in spirt to a military checkpoint than an ordinary tollgate. The barrier was manned by a man in a raincoat, with a couple of heavily armed and armored troopers standing off to the side. Despite the show of force, they looked relaxed. John Marcotti already had his window rolled down.
"Hi," said the trooper. "Where are you guys going?"
"One of the refugee camps on the other side of the Portal," said John Marcotti. "That is, if they're open. I don't know if they call it Canada or what over there."
"OK, hold on for a moment," said the trooper. He pointed a vid camera at our license plate, took a picture of our car registration, then told us to wait. "Sorry, we don't let people go straight through. We check license plates and ID's and the computer's a little slow today. Speaking of which, you might want to produce your IDs."
"Linda, kids, bring 'em out," said John.
"We're going through that thing?" said Julia.
We're going through that thing," said John. "They're accepting refugees from the Bay and your mother and I have heard that their camps are a lot nicer and a lot safer than the place we stayed at."
He waited as his wife and children brought out their IDs. Coming from a world of Capes and Endbringers, he'd made his children get Positive ID cards as soon as they were enrolled in school just in case, God forbid, the worst happened. Once he had the ID cards in hand, he handed them over to the trooper. The trooper started scanning them in, using a hand-held bar-code reader, handing the cards back to him as he scanned each one.
The trooper waited for the computer to reply. John could see the Portal was on the other side of the gate. He couldn't drive straight through it; there was a large armored police vehicle parked directly between the checkpoint and the Portal. He'd have to drive slowly around the armored car to go through it. He could see the Portal and the view on the other side; it looked a lot like what was on this side. He wondered what Earth Showa would be like.
Julia fidgeted in the back seat. She didn't expect to go through the Portal, although for now she was cool with the ID. The trooper must of liked what he saw on his screen because he nodded a minute later, then gave her Dad a laminated yellow card with a bar code, and said "The camps are open. Also, you'll need this."
"Thanks," said her Dad. "Do you need anything else"
"No, you guys are good to go," said the trooper. "God bless. Have a nice day."
Julia felt her Dad put the car in gear and they drove through the Portal. The sensation was, well, weird. It was like we'd crossed from one world into another one. The landscape looked much the same as the other side but everything was different. There was something different in the air, something without the sadness and fear she'd taken for granted as being part of life on Earth Bet.
They rolled a little further. Not far, just half a mile. Then they came to another road block. It wasn't quite a road block; it was more like a cross between a toll lane and a border crossing. Her Dad slowed down, then lowered a window.
"You guys from Earth Bet?" he asked. Julia thought he sounded Canadian.
"Yes, sir," said her Dad.
"You got a card?" said the trooper.
"Yes," said her Dad, handing it over.
"Reason for coming here?" said the trooper.
"We're refugees," said her Dad. "We're from Brockton Bay. We decided that it was time to leave and that it was better over here."
"We welcome good people and we can always use more," said the cop or whatever he was. "Before you drive off, put this orange sticker on the inside of your windshield."
He handed her Dad a bag. "You might want to look at the contents. There's some info about refugee shelters up ahead at the tourist information center. You can get directions to a camp and get registered for a place to stay. Don't throw away the other stuff, It's got vouchers for meals and showers at the travel center up the way."
"How many of you are there?" he said.
"Five of us," said Dad, "two adults, three children."
"Let me add some more cards," said the cop. "It will give everyone a chance to wash up."
-Worm-Milieu—Worm—Milieu—Worm—Milieu—Worm—Milieu—Worm—Milieu—
"We're staying here?" said Julia.
"Yes," said her Dad. "It's safer than a camp on Earth Bet. Your mother and I discussed it back at the other camp shortly after we learned that Earth Showa's Proctorship said that they were opening up access to their world for refugees."
The metal barrier in front of them raised, the cop nodded at them, and her Dad drove away. The area past the Portal on the Earth Showa side had ambulances, fire trucks, black vans, and what looked like a couple of armored cars., but past it, things started looking like what Julia thought of as plain old boring countryside, with trees lining the roadway and screening the countryside, occasionally the screen broke and they could see farm-houses and green fields.
After a while, Dad pulled off at an exit marked "Tourist Information." We parked in front of a building that looked like it had bathrooms and literature. I looked over his shoulder and saw the gas gauge; the gas tank had little more than half a tank left. At the time I thought what the hell, we could get some up ahead. At the time I thought that we were only going to be here a week or two, so that didn't bug me. There was another sign by the travel center. It was newer that the other and read "Welcome Refugees!".
Dad and Mom told us to get out and use the bathrooms. It was the first running water we'd seen since we'd left the other camp and we washed our faces and hands. When we came out, I saw Dad talking with a guy wearing an unfamiliar uniform. The man gave him some forms and Dad started filling them out. I didn't pay much attention to what he was doing; I just thought he was filling out paperwork for a camp site. Mom came over and offered to buy us some pop, but we quickly learned that the machines wouldn't take our money or credit cards.
We got back in the car. Dad and Mom started looking over the maps he'd been given at the road-block, then he made us roll up our windows before we drove away.
"So. Laura, where should we go?" said Dad.
"I'd like to go to Halifax if we can get there," said Mom.
I felt my heart start thumping in my chest when my Mom mentioned Halifax. Halifax? Too close to the ocean.
"I don't know if we can go that far," said Dad. "I don't think we've got enough gas."
"Can't we get some more?" said Mom.
"I don't know if we can," said Dad. "I asked, but gas isn't easy to get around here. The only cars that use it are antiques and show cars. Most of these guys use electrics or fuel cells."
We drove along the highway. Traffic had thinned out from what it was near the Porthole. Most of the cars we saw now had New Brunswick license plates. A couple of the drivers honked at us and waved.
"We might have to settle for whatever camp we can get to," said Dad.
"Are we gonna run out?" I asked. Being stuck on the side of the road frightened me.
"We're going to get real low," said Dad, "but I'll try and get us to a camp before we completely run out."
There was a sign advertising a Travel Center about 35 kilometers away.
"Laura, why don't you take a look through that bag they gave us," said Dad. "There might be some vouchers for food and maybe some showers."
"I don't think we're going to make it to Halifax," said Mom, "it's over 270 miles away. What about the other camps? St. John, maybe?"
"That camp's filled up," said Dad. "I asked." I didn't know my Canadian geography that well but I knew that both places were on the coast. Being that close to the ocean and Leviathan made me uneasy.
"Of course there's Fredericton," said Mom.
"Let's stop at this travel center first," said Dad.
Dad pulled off at the travel center. From a distance, it looked a lot like the ones back on Earth Bet: signs, pavement, cars parked at islands, a combination store and restaurant set in the middle. The differences didn't start to show until we got closer. They did have electrical charging stations, which they didn't have back on Earth Bet. But I didn't see any gas pumps. Where were they?
We walked in and it was like we were in some place where they'd never heard about Capes or Endbringers.
"These vouchers are good for showers," said the clerk.
I felt the hot shower water wash away all the mud and the filth I'd picked up since we'd first left the Bay. We came out, still dressed in our old clothes.
"I think that Fredericton is going to have to do," said Dad. "I think we've got just enough in the tank to get us there."
We soon found the turn for the highway towards Fredericton and took it.
Dad drove, Mom guiding us into Fredericton using the map they'd gotten back at the tourist center. We got pulled over by a cop on the way there, which scared me for a moment, but all he did was give us directions. I wondered if we'd have to drive around Fredericton to look for gas, but we began to see LED signs along the road giving us directions to the camp. Dad found the sign for the turn-off to the camp, then turned in the driveway.
There was a sign out front that said FREDERICTON, NB CAMP HIGH COMMISSION FOR REFUGEES SIMBIARI PROCTORSHIP. There was a line of cars stopped in front of man wearing a yellow vest and holding a clip-board. He talked and pointed to the people in front of us, after talking to them, most of them turned right into a parking lot. He waved at us when it was our turn. Dad slowed down and rolled down his window.
"Are you from that Brockton Bay place?" he said.
"Yes, said Dad.
"This must be your vehicle, then," said the man.
"It is," said Dad.
"OK, you can park it over in that row over there," he said. "Third row on the right. We have luggage carts if you need help unloading."
"Thanks," said Dad.
Dad drove forward and turned right. We drove past a lot of cars with Home State license plates and typical Brockton Bay bumper stickers, then pulled into an empty space. We'd have a long walk if we wanted to get back to our car.
"OK," said Dad. "We're here. I'll got get a luggage cart. Everybody get out and stretch; we'll start unloading when I come back."
"So where are we?" asked Mark.
"We're in a city called Fredericton," said Mom. "If this was Earth Bet, I think it would be on the border or just over the border in Canada."
"So why here?" I asked.
"Because your father and I decided that it would be safer here than going to some refugee camp in the States," she said. "Canadians don't have as much gun crime as we do, and I suspect that these guys are the same way." It sounded reasonable at the time so I didn't complain.
"So how long are we going to be here?" I asked.
"Until things get settled down," Mom said reassuringly.
Dad came back a little later with a luggage cart. We started unloading the car and stacking our stuff on the luggage cart.
"We don't have to bring it all in," said Dad. "Just the stuff we're going to use and the stuff that's really valuable."
"But suppose somebody breaks into our car?" I asked.
"This is Canada," my Dad replied reassuringly.
Dad and Mom and I started unloading the car. Mark helped a little, but he was only ten and couldn't do very much. Unloading went faster and easier than packing the car, but it still took us a while to get done.
"OK, let's go," said Dad. We started walking towards the driveway where we'd turned in.
"You want to go over there," said the guy, gesturing towards what looked like something that looked like it had been converted from a shipping container. It had a screened porch and a sign our front that said OFFICE and another sign underneath that said INTAKE. "Let's see about checking in," said Dad.
"We're going to have to X-ray your stuff," said one of the guys in the weird uniform. "We realize that things were pretty hairy where you came from, but we confiscate hand guns and combat knives."