The Children of New Earth (3 page)

I took a deep, wavering breath. “Aaron, have you ever heard of the phrase, ‘ignorance is bliss?’”

“I have, friend.”

“Well, I could’ve lived without that description.”

“Don’t worry, if anything attacks, I’ll see it coming so at least we won’t be surprised when it kills us,” he said facetiously.

I chuckled, but I couldn’t stop worrying. I couldn’t stop thinking about my parents. Were they alright? Did they stop the people that invaded Sanctuary? Or did they at least get out of the city? For now, I just walked through the Tunnel to an uncertain destination, keeping my hopes up but expectations realistic. I tried not to think about the situation, and I instead found myself reminiscing of my childhood; of a time I felt, in a loose definition, safe.

When I was little, I used to see the other kids go running every morning, complete obstacle courses, play sports, and other such athletics. One day, they found something while out searching for resources and the Parents recognized it as a football, used for a game of the same name. The kids deemed the rules too verbose. Given that they were training to be fighters, they had very little patience so they simplified the game. Each team gets a turn and assigns a runner. The runner starts at one end of the field, a large expanse near the border of the Sanctuary, and must somehow get the football to the other side of the field. The ball can be passed along the way, and the team defends the runner by knocking down any opponents. If the ball is intercepted or the carrier is knocked down, the team’s turn ends. I personally did not enjoy getting pushed around and covered in mud, and opted to spectate instead.

I was also fascinated with technology, and spent much of my time tinkering with various machinery salvaged from scouting missions. At a very young age, I built a device from spare parts that could harness the power of the sun to generate energy. This is also when I found out that solar power was already being used to sustain the Sanctuary. However, my parents were delighted nonetheless.

My greatest breakthrough was when I was 16. I created a radar device that flew into the sky, scanned everything in a set radius, and returned with analyzed data about anything of interest. This included food, water, electrical parts, and even signs of life. It was a prototype of course, but our top engineers were able to fix some bugs, make it more durable, and optimize it for distribution to scavenging parties. Since then, our supplies have increased dramatically.

After what seemed like hours of walking, I had calmed down a bit and was ready to ask for some answers.

“Aaron, where are we going?”

“It’s a Sanctuary," he replied. “I’ve been corresponding with a friend there ever since comms went down a few years back.”

“How did you correspond if the comms were, in fact, down?” Rachel asked.

“It’s her power,” Aaron explained. “I don’t know how it works exactly, but she’s basically an advanced mind-reader.”

“So she sends you her thoughts then reads what you have to say in response?” I was both impressed and confused.

“But how is that even possible when you live so far apart?” Rachel was also curious.

“We met several times on scouting missions,” Aaron said in a happy tone. “We had a meeting place all set up in the northern part of the city, and we’d meet there whenever we could. Eventually, she learned to enter my mind no matter the distance.”

“That’s…that’s beautiful,” Rachel and I were quite touched.

“Anyway, she often offered for me to go stay with her, but I could never - ”

Aaron was interrupted by a short, high-pitched cry in the darkness ahead. We stopped in our tracks, frozen in terror. After a few seconds of silence, I deluded myself into thinking it was something else, when it was obvious there was nothing else it could’ve been. Then it came again, except this time it was more like a whimpering, and it did not stop.

“Someone’s in here with us,” Rachel said quietly. “Do you think they need our help?”

“Our help?” I was shocked. “There is no possible way someone is down here, alone. It has to be a trick.”

“We’re down here,” Aaron argued. “For all we know it could be another Neogen from the Sanctuary.”

I heard them continue onward, and I was forced to follow. Something didn’t feel right, but Aaron and Rachel seemed intent on finding the source of the crying. They probably thought it was a small child, lost in the dark. I did not understand why they believed this so easily. I tried to warn them repeatedly, but my words fell on deaf ears.

“She’s close now,” Rachel said, her footsteps quickening. “I can hear it up ahead.”

“She?” I whispered, voice shaking.

“The girl of course,” Aaron answered.

“Listen to me. There is no lost child down here. It’s something else, something dangerous. Can you not see that?!”

“Don’t be so selfish, Thran!” Rachel said. Her tone cut through me like a knife. She was always joking when she said things like that, but this time she sounded quite serious.

“You’re not a fighter like us, you wouldn’t understand,” Aaron added.

We continued onward in silence. My heart was racing, my legs were shaking, and the crying was getting louder and louder. It reached a point where the crying no longer sounded human. It was more like a low wailing echoing in the shadows. Suddenly, I ran into Aaron.

“Hey, what - ?”

“Quiet!” he said sharply. “I see it.”

“Is she OK?” Rachel asked.

“I can’t tell. She’s kneeling down, facing the wall.” That’s when the wailing stopped.

“Wait” Aaron said, voice trembling. “It stood up. Somethings not right…that’s not -”

A startling screech came out of the darkness in front of us, and I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. Then suddenly, a bright light shone behind me and revealed the creature. It had a distorted humanoid shape, gray skin, and a mess of black hair covering its face. I looked down to see that I had been stabbed with one of its long claws. I struggled to breathe or move, but as darkness began to cloud my mind, the creature squirmed in the light and backed off. I winced in pain as the claw left my body. Gunfire focused on the monster, and the last thing I saw before I fell to the ground were two words written on the wall:

“Wake up.”

Chapter 3

In a dream I was in a city with towering skyscrapers, standing in all their glory. There was no rubble, a clear, bright sky, and most refreshingly, the people were smiling. There were hundreds of them happily walking alongside me in the street. And they weren’t wearing clothes fashioned from old, tattered fabric. I saw one man with a shiny black coat that draped magnificently over his broad shoulders. He wore a fresh white shirt underneath and from his neck hung a straight piece of bright red cloth. His pants were also a jet-black color, and they ran down to his obsidian shoes, every inch of which seemed to have been polished to perfection. His dark blonde hair was combed to perfection. I was in awe of how he was able to achieve this level of physical perfection. I was also curious as to how I was imagining all this. Had I seen this before? Or has my mind simply created a world based on the stories I had heard from the Parents?

I looked around and saw other well-dressed men and women walking around. I had no idea where they were going, but they clearly seemed busy, their minds deliberating on important matters that seemed so trivial in my world. In some ways I was relieved that my life was so simple. But at the same time I couldn’t help but yearn for some greater purpose in life. The human race, once so vastly diverse and beautifully complicated had been reduced to nothing but survival instincts. We risked our lives everyday; we had no idea what was still wandering in the barren wastelands that used to be bustling cities, luscious farmland, and great forests. This dream made me long for some other reason to live. I didn’t just want to use old machinery and repair it into a useful device. I wanted to innovate, make new things that no one had ever seen or thought of before. I wanted to meet like-minded people to work with. Most of all, I wanted to be known. If I died now, only a few people would remember me. I would be nothing to the myriad of beings that remain alive on Earth or even those among the stars. I would just be another casualty of war, and that was my greatest nightmare.

As I continued to walk I saw a busy road ahead of me. There were people walking back and forth between the buildings, but what really caught my attention were the vehicles. In reality, the only cars I’d seen were military vehicles. These cars were colorful, shiny, and full of life, dashing across the smooth, gray concrete. I looked to my right as I approached the busy intersection, and saw a young couple extending their hands into the road. I followed their gaze but it was difficult to know what I was looking for, since this whole place was a mystery to me. But then, I saw a bright yellow car drive up next to the couple and pick them up.

Fascinated by such a simple, yet practical form of communication, I decided to try the same thing. I quickly raised my hand and kept watch for any more yellow cars. After only a few seconds, one of them pulled up to me and I got in.

The driver didn’t turn, but asked, “Where to?”

I realized I had no idea where I was and therefore no idea where I wanted to go.

“Is it OK if we just drive? I’m new here and just want to explore.”

The driver chuckled. “Damn tourists,” he muttered under his breath. He pressed a couple buttons on a device he had, which displayed the digits 00.00 and began to drive.

This was surreal. Of course, it really was since I was dreaming, but the level of detail was astounding. I was actually impressed with myself for coming up with all this but slightly more curious as to how it was possible. In the end, I decided to enjoy it while it lasted.

I looked out the window to a whole new world. There were so many little - I believe they were called “shops” - where they offered gadgets, clothes, and even food. We had a similar system in the Sanctuary, but necessary goods were distributed equally while luxuries were earned. We eventually drove by a large fountain in the center of a town square. I was appalled at how much water was being wasted simply for the sake of decoration. Surrounding the fountain were tall stone structures of various shapes. I couldn’t figure out what they were meant to represent but it seemed to be simple works of art. I couldn’t help but wonder why water-consuming fountains and shapeless stone monuments were considered aesthetically pleasing.

I realized of course that this represented a time long before the war. A time of peace, innovation, surplus, and culture. My confusion turned to motivation, and I hoped that one day I could partake in the rebuilding of my species into something much greater than anything I had seen here. Glancing at the device in front of the driver, I saw that it now read 17.38.

“Excuse me, what does that number mean?” I asked.

“That’s how much this ride costs, haven’t you ever been in a taxi before?”

“I’m afraid I don’t have any money, you see, I’m pretty sure this is a dream and I’d like to wake up now.”

“How do you know this isn’t real, and your life back at Sanctuary isn’t the dream?”

“Because, um, I - “

“You don’t know? You can’t tell the difference between real and fake?”

“Of course I can! I’m a scientist! I live for logic and facts. And I know for a fact this is a dream.”

“And how do you know?”

I deliberated for a moment. “Because this world is strange to me. It is normal for billions of people but it is a dream for me. I have no friends here, I have no family here. They are back at Sanctuary. And I’m probably dying in that stupid tunnel along with Rachel and Aaron right now. That’s why this dream is so long, maybe I can’t wake up and I’m just trapped here until everything turns dark and I finally die.”

“What the hell, you don’t have to be so morbid about it.”

I looked up and was shocked to see that the driver was now a girl, about my age, with long, dark brown hair. She turned around, and I got a look at her face. She had pure white skin and tiny freckles all around her nose. Her eyes were an intense light blue color, and they were wide open, staring right at me.

“Who are you?!” I asked in a concerned tone.

“My name is Cora, and you can call me Cora.”

“Yeah, um, that’s kinda how names work.”

She rolled her eyes and turned back around, giving me a long, judging stare before speaking again. “You’re right, it’s time to wake up.”

And with that, she tightened her hold on the steering wheel, accelerated to a clearly unlawful speed, and rushed head-on towards a building.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING, CORA?!”

“When you’re dreaming, the only way to wake up is to die in the dream or induce gyroscopic stress.”

“Gyroscopic stress?”

“You ever feel like you’re falling in a dream, and suddenly wake up?”

“Sometimes.”

“That kind of gyroscopic stress. Tsk, and you call yourself a scientist.”

“So, why can’t you just do THAT?!”

She looked back at me calmly and made the most confused face I had ever seen. “Because that would be terribly boring, now wouldn’t it?”

I shut my eyes and waited for death. But there was no crash. I slowly opened my eyes again. The leather seat of the taxi turned softer and warmer, and the roaring engine died down to a low hum. I awoke to find myself laying on a mattress, squinting at the light until everything came into focus. There was an IV tube in my right arm, and Aaron and Rachel were standing over me. Beside them was Cora, who looked exactly as I saw her in the dream. Except here, she was wearing a white lab coat.

“Good morning sunshine!” Cora cheered. “You’ve been out for quite some time.”

“What - Where am I?” I slowly sat up.

“Welcome to my Sanctuary,” Cora answered. “I’m sure Aaron has told you all about me.”

“I did, friend,” he confirmed. “She’s the mind-reader.”

“Aaron, you flatter me,” she said sarcastically. “Anyway, glad to see you’re still alive no thanks to these two.”

“Hey!” Rachel interjected.

Cora looked at her with an exasperated expression. “You were in a dark and scary tunnel with dead bodies strewn all over the place. And yet, you throw caution to the wind as soon as you hear a little girl crying? You almost got poor Thran killed.”