"So they really want to go all the way up there?" Cillian shook his head at the stars above. Too big, too vast for any human to be able to see what was behind each star or planet. Each speck of light.
"Yeah, right up there where there's no pollution and no cities and we have to go back to how humans were thousands of years ago; farming and raising animals and rebuilding society," Ben shook his head. "It sounds amazing, but too good to be true."
The stars were particularly visible from this hill they were sprawled across. Their gas masks lay by their sides, useless in the uncontaminated country air. Surprisingly, it was only a few miles out from their home in the collection of skyscrapers and factories that had been shut down far too late. Only when all was lost did humanity realise their enormous mistake. Instead of doing what earlier generations had done, and started using natural resources to replace their dwindling fuel supplies, the power hungry companies had found even more dangerous and deadly power in the rocks around them.
Radiation had leaked out into the atmosphere, and hundreds of plants had died within the fallout zone. Ben and Cillian had been children witnessing the destruction of life as they knew it, and now they were teens watching the most powerful countries in the world as they assembled ships that could take them to planets far away in space that had been analysed and probed until they were certain it was safe for life.
"I dunno," Cillian muttered uncertainly. "Farming sounds a bit extreme, don't it? Couldn't we just live like we have been doing but in a more environmentally friendly way?"
Cillian came from a family descended from old farmers, and he didn't really care much for those roots. In the world now, with food almost being created in factories with the amount of chemicals having to be pumped in to make it safe, farming was a bit of a useless job. Nobody really wanted to bother with fresh produce now, so long as the food kept them alive and going strong. Cillian was getting by fine.
But he could see in Ben's eyes, the way they twinkled from more than just the star light when he gazed into space. The boy had always had a love of the unknown, and what was more adventurous and incredible than leaving the planet all together? Besides, it wasn't like the planet was holding any fond memories.
Ben, seemingly ignoring Cillian's comment, carried on.
"But look, it's so beautiful up there. We could be up on one of those one day, watching Earth from a safe haven up in the sky. We would be miracles. We would create a new future. Come on Cillian, if I ever went up there, would you come with me?"
Cillian grunted and stared up at the planets above. It was so difficult to see them in the wondrous way Ben viewed them, but there was at least one thing he was sure of.
"If you chose to go, 'course I'd go with ye. There ain't no way I'm letting you go and have all yer adventures in space alone, Ben." Cillian smiled over at the other boy. In the distance a bell chimed, and a chorus of lights in the surrounding areas disappeared as residents fearing the dreaded curfew stuck to the carefully planned out rules. Ben and Cillian were sat there, illuminated only by the stars.
"Good. So long as I know you'd follow me to the ends of the universe, I'm a happy guy," Ben grinned. He shuffled closer to Cillian and linked their hands. With the starlight dotting the hill, and the brief section of woodland stretching out in the valley below, Earth was a beautiful place.
So how beautiful will an unpolluted place be? Cillian thought, eyes drifting over to Ben's.
"I think we should both go."