What's at the Surface?

“Ten minutes to impact” a calming voice was heard in the crowded terminal, but it had no effect on the frantic crowd. My family and I were all crowded into a Traksub.

The operator pulled it away from the station, and I saw a last glimpse of the grass and trees before the dark water covered us. A brilliant orange flash filled the space above us. I stood next to my younger brother Kayle. My mother whimpered at the explosions.

“Did you want some licorice?” a fat man next to me held out a piece.

“No.”

“It’s strawberry!” He waved it in my face.

“No,” I sank down to sit next to Kayle.

“Suit yourself.” He stuffed it into his mouth.

A short twenty minutes earlier, the Russians had launched a nuclear bomb at the USA. In a stupid act by our president, he had fired one, or three, back. We had been building underwater businesses and schools for fifteen years, because of the ever-tighter space on earth, and now they came in handy, when half of our nation needed to escape being blown up. The other half wasn’t so lucky.

As the darkness covered us, the automatic lights flickered on. Now we had no money, no home, no jobs, hey at least we had school! The pod stopped and its doors opened. I stood up and took Kayle’s hand. We walked into the underwater world that we would live in.

***

“Sam!” my boyfriend, Xavier, stuck his head into my room.

“What?” I was on my computer very quickly typing the rest of my term paper.

“Ready for school?” he crossed the room to stand behind me. “We gotta leave.”

“Yeah, one second.” I sent it to the printer and grabbed it on my way out the door. “Bye mom, bye Kayle.” I hugged him on his way upstairs.

“Come on,” Xavier took my hand and we walked down the empty hall. Fish swam by our feet as we walked to the school.

“School, Commence.” A voice said over the sound system.

“Oh, man. We’re going to be late.” I said as Xavier smiled at me.

“Who said we’re going to school?” he squeezed my hand, “let’s have a look around.”

“It’s been 2 years living down here.” I glanced at him. “You still haven’t seen everything?”

“No.” He turned off the main tunnel and we walked into an unfamiliar hall.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“I have no clue.” He laughed, “But I don’t care, as long as I’m with you.”

“You’re so sweet.” I hugged him.

“I know.” He grinned as we continued to walk along the hall. Voices started to discuss something. They were coming from around the corner.

“In here,” he pulled open a door and we quickly jumped inside. The two people stopped in front of the door.

“Colby, we can’t do that.” A woman’s voice said.

“We need to. They can’t find out about the surface.” My dad’s voice floated through the door. We must have been in his lab. I held my breath as a few buttons beeped and the voices faded. The lights flickered on and we could see the city slowly moving away from us.

“We’re in a Traksub.” Xavier whispered. “We’re going exploring.” He was excited.

‘What?” I was shocked, “We can’t go up there.”

“You heard your dad, there is something up there, and we’re going to find out what it is.” The sub stopped and the doors opened.

Xavier stepped onto the rubble. The whole planet was in ruins as far as we could see. Dirt and parts of cars, buildings, you name it, were everywhere.

“Whoa!” I stepped out behind him.

“This... is…so…cool!!!” he laughed

“Xavier!” I followed him, “don’t go too far, I don’t want to get lost.”

“Don’t worry Samara,” he turned, “let’s just look around for a while.”

“Not too long.” I said. He took my hand and we stumbled over the broken pieces of San Diego that used to be homes and businesses. We were soon far from the sub.

“Samara, look at this!” Xavier picked up a dirty blanket.

“Eww…put it down.” I said and screamed as a dirty teen dashed up to Xavier and tried to take it from him.

“What the-?” Xavier backed away from him.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Tyler, and if you don’t want that blanket, I’ll take It.” he held out his hand; Xavier gave it up willingly. “do you need some where to go? Come on. You can come and stay with me and my family” He took my hand. I glanced at Xavier before both of us followed.

We walked over the piles of rubbish and pretty soon, my feet started to hurt. I wasn’t used to walking more than a mile.

“Are we there yet?” I tripped over a broken bicycle and Xavier caught me.

“Almost,” he glanced back at us as a small house came into view over a hill. Tyler opened the door and I stopped in my tracks. I was repulsed at the sight of all sorts of things that covered the walls. I couldn’t believe that Tyler lived here.

“John, Norma, Krista!” he called into another room, “I found a few survivors. Can they stay with us?”

“Where did you find them?” an older man and woman walked into the room, followed by a girl that was about Kayle’s age.

“By the water.” He flopped onto a chair that looked as if it had the stuffing torn out of it. The man looked furious.

“We can’t just leave them out there, John.” The woman I assumed was Norma looked at John.

“We only want to stay long enough to sleep.” Xavier spoke up.

“Fine, for one night only and that’s it.” John stormed off into another room.

“Come on, I’ll find you a place to sleep.” Norma led us off in the opposite direction. She showed us into a room that had a few mattresses on the floor.

As soon as I was sure the family was asleep, I woke up Xavier to leave. We had been sleeping in our jeans. I pulled back a curtain to see the front door.

“Where are you going?” Tyler was standing behind us.

I said one word, “home.” I let Xavier walk out the door and shut it behind myself. Tyler followed us into the night.

“I want to go with you.” He stood by me. We silently argued; I won.

“Not a word.” I knew that Xavier hated him. We somehow made it back out to the sub and I pushed buttons to close the doors and start the contraption. Tyler flinched as the automatic lights flickered on. I turned to see Xavier sitting on the floor.

“What’s wrong?” I asked and sat next to him.

“We are going to be in so much trouble.” He sighed and watched Tyler with loathing, “why did you let him come?”

“Because he wanted to.” I stood up and walked over to him. “Why did you really come?”

“I think you’re really pretty.” He turned to face me.

“Thanks,” I looked to the door as the Traksub dinged announcing that it had arrived. The door opened, and my dad was standing there with his arms crossed. “Hi, dad.” I was nervous about what he would do.

“What’ya doing sweetie?” he smiled.

“Exploring?” I guessed.

“Nice try.” He stepped aside and two more doctors walked into the sub. One grabbed Tyler’s shoulder; the other Xavier’s and my dad grabbed my arm.

“Come on,” he smiled and led us into an unfamiliar white room. My father turned and nodded to the other men. I was amazed that they could lift the boys into huge emoditanks, but only for a second. I struggled and tried to break away from my dad.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“You need to forget about the surface. Your home is here underwater.” He handed me to one of the men. He picked me up and held me above the black liquid in another tank.

“Why are you doing this to me, dad?” I resisted the man’s grip.

“It’s for the best, honey.” He said and the man dropped me into the dark fluid. As I sank into its depths, I felt angry, but it faded into nothingness as my body went numb.

***

“Sam!” Xavier stuck his head into my room. “You ready for school?”

“Almost.” I grabbed my books and shoes, and then headed out the door with him.

We laughed and walked to the school. I glanced around and saw someone very familiar walking the other way. He stopped and stared at me as I walked by.

“Xavier,” I whispered, “do you know him?”

“He does look familiar, but don’t dwell on It.” he squeezed my hand and I was distracted by our friends chattering away noisily.