A Step to Nowhere by Natasha A. Salnikova

others? I was sure they had no idea what was happening or why. Was I special or what?
    Alex said that somebody wanted my death. Was that somebody personally interested? But who? Why? Would I find out about it? Would I see Ray again?
    I looked sideways at the man on my left. Black outfit, smooth hair. He stared forward and didn’t move, like he wasn’t a person, but a statue. What if these people could figure out who I was? What did I need sunglasses for? Was it written in my eyes that I was a naïve fool from Planet Two?
    Endless lottery advertisement on the billboard had changed to a promotion of The Corporation “A Step to Another World”. I lowered my glasses a little so I could look over them and catch all the details. There was my planet on the screen, all right. My houses, my people, young couples, kids, their grandparents. My stores, food, flowers. Could I envisage that all of that would become so far and unreachable? The way we look at pictures of exotic countries, choosing the place to travel, people on this planet were studying my planet, so they could spend millions to walk through the corridor, enter another world, and gather enough experience to last a lifetime. Probably they could even find a double of his or her dead flame and sleep with her or him. The law didn’t allow it? What a pity. Screw the law. If the traveler had gotten in trouble, the double from a parallel world would be liquidated and the problem solved. There had been too many people on Planet Two; they wouldn’t even notice. So, no worries comrades, buy tickets to Planet Two with confidence and no fear! There is no law for you; the law was made for them. Us.
    Why do they wear the same clothes? It looks like a uniform and the city is like one huge factory.
    Another bus had arrived, and this time I saw Park Street on the electronic board. I pulled a couple of hundreds from the pocket, my change from the glasses, and went to get aboard. People entering before me scanned some gray cards through a squeaking device beside the driver window, and I decided not to go. With the cash in my hand, I would draw attention. Then I saw a young woman in a brown uniform (it seemed appropriate for their outfit’s style) walking ahead of me and sticking a hundred dollar blue bill into the device. It spat some change.
    My hand was shaking when I pushed the bill into the slot and accepted the change. I stared at it in some mode of disbelief.
    “Is something wrong?”
    I raised my eyes. The driver was overweight, bold, his face covered with red spots, and his eyes were scared.
    “Everything is fine,” I said as I squeezed the change in my fist.
    Don’t talk. Why did he get so nervous? Did he suspect something?
    I went to the far end of the bus, passing people who didn’t look at me. Almost all of them were sitting on the seats that seemed uncomfortable. Only one young man was standing, gazing out the window.
    I couldn’t see well in the glasses, but the seat at the very end was empty and I fell on it when the bus moved forward, touching the shoulder of the woman by the window. I straightened up, smiled at her. She was young, cute, with two braids. Her outfit was gray and interspersed with silver threads. You could say fancy, compared to the others. She glanced at me with curiosity.
    I stared at the seat in front of me to avoid her gaze. There was nothing written on the back of the chair; nothing was as I had imagined. Everything on this bus was neat and clean. Yes, they were so neat and clean outside and full of crap inside. Maybe not of all them? Probably not, but what difference did it make? If they had an opportunity to come into my world and destroy somebody’s life just to get a few moments of pleasure without any consequences, would they say no?
    Who are we for them?
    “Sorry, do we know each other?”
    I startled, turned to the girl for a second to negatively shake my head. I even smiled again just to look natural. Shit. Shit!
    “I think I’ve seen