Chapter 2

9:15, May 19th, 2149

Rolling out of bed, I fumbled around blindly in the dark for the lights. When I got the lights on, I found a pair of stretchy black leggings that went to midway between my knees and ankles. Slipping on a lightweight pale grey long sleeve shirt, I zipped up my vest ¾ of the way and pulled on a pair of nude socks that matched my skin tone exactly. Sliding into my favorite shoes, a pair of slip-on grey shoes from a brand once called Vans, I slipped a few of my smallest valuables into the pockets of my vest and made sure they were securely zipped in. I took a small makeup bag that contained mascara, eye shadow, eyeliner, & some powder off a small folding chair next to my bed. Sitting in front of the mirror in the main living area, I applied the black mascara until my eyelashes looked wonderful. Using my finger, I dabbed light brown eye shadow on my eyelids. After I framing the bottom of my eyes with a line from my dark charcoal grey eyeliner pencil, I used a small, fluffy brush to even out my skin tone with the powder.

Satisfied with my appearance, I went back to my room and zipped the bag into a side pocket on my large backpack. I found my straightening spray, spritzed it through my hair, and brushed it out until my hair was ruler-straight, only a little straighter than its natural waviness and then slipped the brush and spray back into my pack. The gargantuan backpack, weighing close to forty pounds and three and a half feet tall, was stuffed to the max with the contents of my entire life; mostly clothing & shoes, close to twenty books, makeup, (lots of) photos, a music player, and a (secret) multi tool I'd acquired that had a mini-sonic blaster, knife, pliers, and various other useful things. Dragging it out into the bare living room, empty of all furniture except our smelly old couch, I lugged it onto the couch and left it there. All the lights in the apartment were off except for one or two in the main room.

In front of the couch on the floor were a couple pencils, a pen, and old photos. Strewn haphazardly in one area, my mother had been leafing through everything the night before, labeling photos that were going with us to Terra Nova. Sitting in a neat pile were the packets of information we received about Terra Nova, talking about everything, including hyperoxic shock, dinosaurs, security, terras (the currency), food, weather, housing, jobs, and schooling. There was one packet for each person, each one being nearly forty papers thick. With trees nearly completely decimated, paper was only distributed to those who it would be most handy to. Because the settlers were the ones who were saving humanity, they were considered the "paper-deserving". Each packet was laminated with special plastic so they stay good as new for use many times over. On the day of the pilgrimage, the pilgrims return the packets with their reBreathers at the transfer station.

Picking up a photo that caught my attention, I examined it. She's 27, and he's almost 29. She has that dark chocolate-colored hair that everybody envies pulled back in a ponytail. His short blonde hair is a gold color that nearly nobody has, thanks to finicky genes. She has incredibly pale skin, ivory in color. His skin is naturally tan, not damaged by tanning beds like so many millions of others. His eyes are that vivid blue color you only see in eyes…you won't see it in a world of pollution anywhere else. He is kind of chubby, but he's 5'9", while she is small and 5'2". Her eyes are that same pale grey with green flecks. In front of them stand two kids, a boy & his little sister. They both have the same skin color; a cross between ivory and tan. The boy, who looks about seven, has dark chocolate hair and pale blue-grey-green eyes. His five-year-old sister has her dad's hair, and the same eyes as her brother. Her hair is obviously her dad's but has always been lighter. Nobody ever knew why, not even the best doctors or geneticists in the country. Her parents figured she had an ancestor with the same hair and that that's where she got it. Nobody knew that those two little kids were going to lose their dad just a few days later. He died protecting his family from thieves that broke into their little home. There were three men, each with a gun. They shot him when he tried beating one man, and got away before the police showed up. Those two little kids lost their father. The police took his body away, and nobody ever saw it again. There wasn't even a funeral; just a letter of condolence from city hall & the ashes in a small plastic jar.

"You're coming with us to Terra Nova, Dad, even if we can't take your ashes." I whispered, folding the photo in half and zipping it into an inside pocket of my vest, next to my heart. Hope Plaza had informed us that human ashes could not be taken on the pilgrimage, so we mailed his ashes to his parents who lived four hours away. I heard movement, and could see someone coming down the stairs.

"Hey, Ally," I said to my cousin as she slogged down the spiral staircase with her backpack.

"Morning," she said, smiling, "I can't believe the day's finally here."

"Neither can I. It feels unreal that last night was the last time we'll ever sleep in 2149." I replied. She dragged her backpack across the floor and placed it next to mine.

"I know. I feel bad about leaving Grandma & Grandpa behind, but they know it's for the best," she told me, "I'm ready to breathe real air, but I'm kind of afraid of the dinosaurs. What about you?"

"I'm honestly not even worried about the dinosaurs. Like, it really didn't even cross my mind as danger or anything. I know they're dangerous and all, but it never really worried me. I think that the adventure waiting for us there is too massive for me to worry about dinosaurs." I told her. Shrugging, she pulled a brush out of her pack and went to the mirror and brushed her long brown hair until it was silky & shiny. It had no variation in its texture or shape; straighter than my own and shaped along the bottom in a perfect half-oval. I examined her outfit while she twiddled around with her backpack. She was wearing an unzipped grey bomber jacket made from canvas and a tan scoop neck shirt with long sleeves. A pair of light grey leggings longer than my own accentuated her perfectly proportioned lower half, finished off with dark tan combat-style boots. Her makeup consisted of light grey eye shadow, mascara, and a short black wing of eyeliner on each eye, coming to a sharp, precise point.

"When are we leaving for Hope Plaza?" she asked, looking at me.

"At ten. The transfer doesn't begin until twelve, but it take a long time to get through security." As I finished what I was saying, my mom came down the hallway from her room dressed in a white shirt, grey pants, a tan cardigan and her favorite grey shoes, carrying her bag with both arms. She carefully sat hers down on the floor.

"You girls ready? Today's the big day!" her normally calm demeanor was nonexistent; she was like a kid on Christmas morning. Her make up was simple and clean- mascara and a bit of eyeliner, nothing more.

"Yesofcourse," our words overlapped each other as we spoke. Laughing, my mother walked over to our little kitchen, a few feet of counter space & fridge with a leaky sink sticking out of the wall, reached into the cupboard and pulled out a couple packets of powdered InstaFood & our two "for special occasions" bright red apples, each the size of a small fist.

"Are you serious, Mom?" She turned and looked at me, a little confused.

"What?"

"I thought apples were only for special occasions,"

"And going to Terra Nova isn't a special occasion?" she asked me rhetorically.

"Oh…I guess that is a special occasion." I said, smiling. Duh. She turned back to the food. Taking a short knife, she sliced the apples in half at the stem, cutting out the seeds. She wrapped the seeds in a square piece of cloth-like paper and put the folded packet into a small baggie that fit perfectly into her pocket.

"What's a special occasion?" Jacob said as he came out of his room, already wearing his pack. He carefully placed it on the couch next to me.

"Going to Terra Nova. That's why mom's letting us have apples today." His eyes lit up as he looked at my mom.

"We get apples?" Laughing, my mom nodded her head.

"What do you two think of my clothing choice?" he asked Ally & I, "Is it Terra Nova-worthy?" I stood next to Ally as we examined his choice of clothing. He was wearing a greenish-grey tee shirt, a pair of greyish-brownish pants, a black zip-up hoodie, and brown work shoes.

"Very practical, good for the hike to the colony." Ally said after only a few seconds.

"Good, because I didn't pick it out or anything. May gave it to me before she went to Terra Nova. She told me that there was no way Mom wouldn't get recruited, and she said to wear this on the day of the pilgrimage." He was talking about his girlfriend May, who went on the seventh pilgrimage a year earlier. Although our families had known each other for years and years, they had been together almost three years when she left, and she told him that she'd be waiting for him when our family came, no matter how long she had to wait. She was an absolute beauty; copper hair & sapphire blue eyes, with a perfectly symmetrical face and ivory skin. She had been the "top dog" in school; the prettiest, the funniest, and the most outgoing. She had been my closest friend after Ally. When she left, it was hard on both Jacob & I.

"We'll see her soon…by the time we go to sleep tonight in our new home, you'll have your girlfriend back. I promise." He smiled.

"I'll hold you to that, you know." I nodded, not taking him seriously.

"Okay guys, breakfast is served!" My mother carried over a tray of food and sat it on the floor. Everyone sat around the tray on the floor and took their portion of food, as we had been doing the past couple days without our small dining table. My mother had made steamed Insta-rice and sliced apples, along with powdered milk mixed with water to drink. By 2149 terms, with was a pretty good meal. The rice, our mother always told us, tasted how it did when she was a kid & people could actually buy real rice, not man-made powdered rice. This stuff was a powder you mixed with hot water and it became "edible" food.

"Eat up…we have a long day ahead of us, and we're going to need whatever nutrients this food has in it. Make sure to eat slowly so your stomach doesn't get overloaded with food. We'll be walking a lot today." She told us, and we all nodded. To eat slower, we talked a lot.

"Do we each get our own room?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"No, two people will have to share since they assume all the people come here in family groups of no more than 2 kids."

"No way, it depends on what model you get. Some only have one bedroom and some have four or five. Like, if you come alone and have nobody to live with, they'll usually put you in a two or three bedroom unit with other people coming by themselves with nobody there. Or if you're a family with two kids, you get an N7 with three bedrooms usually."

"I heard they assign houses at random based on the number of people coming."

"Either way, we'll all be together." We sat in silence, chewing the tasteless food.

"My god, is it already ten?" My mom said, looking at the clock, "come on, grab what you want to eat on the way there and get your packs. We have to go now." We grabbed whatever food from the tray we wanted and let her whisk the tray to the sink. She rinsed it quickly and left it in the sink, not concerned about doing the dishes later. We each pulled our packs on, adjusting the thickly padded straps to our liking. I snapped together the closure on the belt support around my hips to help distribute the weight more evenly.

"Take a good look at this apartment, kids…we're never going to see it again." My mom told us. We all turned and looked at the grimy space we stood in. This place held no good memories, only pain and anguish. It smelled of mold (one of the few plants still surviving) and was terribly cold. The walls were thin and uninsulated. My mother had cleaned up all the pictures on the floor and had secured them in her backpack somewhere, leaving the room empty.

"Goodbye to this hell hole," Jacob muttered.

"Agreed," both my mom and I said in unison.

"Goodbye to this hell hole of a world," Ally said.

"Agreed," Jacob and I said in unison.

I was the last one to leave the apartment. Looking behind me, I took one last glance at the world I was leaving. Goodbye, 2149.