Uro

The year is 4.6 ^2.8 ATF. 4.6 meant 4.6 billion. That’s how old the solar system is. Here, we count time from the birth of our solar system. There is no religion anymore. There hasn’t been since the Wars.

2.8 meant how long it was until the sun died. That number also changes as it gets closer. Since it was the year the sun will die, that’s why it is there. ATF stands for After The Future. The future already happened. Everything that would happen to the Earth while it was still here has happened. Therefore it was After, The Future.

I was born in the unlucky era of when the Sun’s latest days were here. This era is called Red Giant, after what the sun will become...it is a Red Giant.

I wake up every day to a no longer blue sky. It can’t be called sky blue anymore. It is orange. Bright, bloodred orange. The sun was a huge ball of red and orange gas, threatening us. It is massive. It takes up almost a third of the visible sky.

At night, it is not dark. Not black. It is blue.

But since the sun is getting larger and larger, everyone must evacuate.

Evacuate what? The Earth, of course. Scientists have been deciding where humans will go.

After the sun swallows Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, possibly the asteroid belt as well, it will become a white dwarf. Everything will go dark. All the outer planets will not be affected, only parts of their atmospheres will be gone. But other than that, no, they are safe.

They’re all made of gas, and Pluto is too far away and too small to live. So we are going to go to a moon to live.

They chose Europa of Jupiter and Enceladus of Saturn. Some of us will go to Europa, and others to Enceladus. We choose. I still do not know where I want to travel to. By living in one of the few richer families of our time, I can afford to leave Earth. Others will not. Sadly, most of our population will have to stay.

Not that there is a lot of population left.

Since the sun has heated the Earth far hotter than normal, there are no continents anymore. Barely any water. We live on a giant cratered beach. That’s all it is.

Sand everywhere, lots of wind, hardly any water or grass. There are pretty much no animals left here. Only humans and bacteria and the hot sun.

Our years are shorter too. Since the sun is so large, we orbit much faster than it used to be.

A day is ten hours long. A year, barely a few months.

The moon got pulled out of orbit too.

It’s gone as well.

I sometimes wish the Earth already got swallowed by the sun. It is getting closer anyway. We’re going to have to leave soon.

Most of my friends are staying here on Earth. The only one coming with me is Uro. Just me, Alaye, and my best friend Uro.

My family is coming too. Not that there is a lot of us. My father and sister died from heatstroke. So it’s me, my mother, and Uro. Uro lives with us since he is an orphan. His mother committed suicide when he was younger and his parents never married. It was very sad, but he was accepted by me and my family.

~

I wake up one day to Uro shaking me. His hands gripped on my shoulder, shouting quietly, “Alaye! Alaye! Do wake up!”

I blinked open my eyes groggily to see Uro’s brown eyes staring down at me, his blonde hair still messy. He must have climbed down from his bunk to mine quite frantically.

“What’s the maaaatteeerr…?” I yawned.

“Look outside, Alaye!” He dragged my by my arms off the bed and to the window. It was the same. The sunrise dark red and very hot already.

“It’s the same, U,” I said.

“No! The sun is bigger,” he replied. “We need to leave soon. Where are we going to go? Have you decided yet?”

I turned around to face him. He looked genuinely concerned.

“What are you so worried about, U? We are leaving eventually.”

“I don’t want you to get hurt,” Uro said.

I smiled. That was cute. “I won’t, Uro. Neither of us will. We are leaving.”

He didn’t reply, just stared at me and then the ground.

“Now let’s get ready for school. Life goes on when the sun is dying.”

~

We lived in what was once the United States of America in the Democratic Age. It wasn’t America anymore, of course. The Sand Continent was divided into North Sand, South Sand, and so on. We were in West Sand. Countries? Ha! They don’t exist. We are just one Super-Continent, and all of us have to get along. Of course there are still races and diversities. It is decided by the people on where they want to live.

The Sands have their governments. There were town and city governments thought. No country, federal governments.

The Governments were not that great, let’s say. They set up the Schools pretty okay, but everything else was s**t. They were terrible at organizing our Planetary Leave to Enceladus And Europa.

Most of our school was gone. A lot of people don’t go anymore. Uro and I were two out of the hundred or so students who still attend school and not preparing to leave Earth. We were preparing, but not excessively.

We had to wear uniforms to school. The Democratic Age never did solve that problem. Our uniforms were entirely black, black jeans and black collared shirts with black shoes. Girls had to wear their hair up in ponytails or buns, preferably buns. I did not, however, do that. My hair was way too short to do either of those things. It was black and spiky down a little past my chin. My eyes were cat eyes,and two different colors! That wasn’t that rare anymore, but it wasn’t common either. One was a bright emerald green and the other was a greyish blue.

When Uro and I walked into school, we were surprised to see Guards there. They were never there unless there was a problem, or they expected a problem to occur.

Uro instantly grabbed the hand that wasn’t holding my briefcase.

We walked in together, cautiously ignoring the Guards watching us with suspicion.

Uro glared back at the Guards. He was always against having Guards following us wherever we go, and he wasn’t shy about it.

I tugged him along to class before he started something.

The Teacher and most of our class were already there. They watched us curiously as I yanked Uro to his seat.

“Anyway,” The Teacher said. “I hope most of you will be Evacuated as soon as possible. I am going to Europa. Is there anyone else here going?”

A few people raised their hands.

“Good, good. Has anyone else heard about Guards already being on Europa and Enceladus?”

“No?”

“Well, Guards are confirming the safety of those two worlds and making sure they are habitable for humans. So far, they are.”

“We shall be safe.”

~

I found myself being stark nervous after we left class. My tablets were clasped tightly to my chest, and I walked so fast and brisk that Uro had to run to catch up.

After he’d caught up to me, he kept gazing at me expectantly, as if he wanted me to say something. But I did not.

Neither us of spoke for a good five minutes.

Finally, he said, “What’s on your mind?”

“I don’t know.”

“What?”

“How is the planet still existent? How is civilization still existent? Why are humans still here? Shouldn’t we be robots? The past human civilizations would have expected that. Why are we still here? Now we find ourselves pretty much dead already ‘cuz of the Sun. The thing that gave us life is also the thing that will bring life to an end.”

Uro didn’t reply. He just put an arm around my shoulders as he helped me guide my shaking body to our next class.

We shall be safe.

~

When I arrived home alone, I decided to take a walk. Just a simple walk, as if life and civilization were not at its knees.

The pavement was burning hot beneath my shoes, designed to protect my feet from the heat. It also felt slippery, as if it was evaporating already from the Sun.

Something wasn’t right.

I got a sixth sense as I walked to where the beach used to be. Of course, I don’t have any memories of it, since I was not yet alive when it used to be there. But the remnants were still there. Charred, blackened wood from when palm trees inhabited the area. They’d caught on fire.

But again, something was not right.

I looked to the sky. It was redder than normal. With blue tints.

Blue tints.

Of course.

That meant only one thing.

Solar flares.

~

I sprinted as fast as I could back to the house. It was somewhat far, and I was starting to get anxious.

I’ve had experience with solar flares before. But this one seemed way, way worse than all the ones of the past.

“ALAYE! ALAYE, WHERE ARE YOU??”

Uro.

“GET INSIDE NOW!”

I saw him from a distance. He’d seen me, and was running towards me. S**t.

“URO, GET THE F**K INSIDE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” I shouted.

“I CAN’T LET YOU GET HURT!”

D****t.

Time sped up, and my words began to be garbled and incomprehensible. I felt dizzy. Why was the world spinning?

My ears rang loudly, and I tried to scream, “WHO RANG THE DOORBELL??”

He kept running, and seconds before he grabbed me, a hot flash jolted through my body, causing my brain cells to shut down and black me out.

The last thing I felt was Uro’s arms around me as I stumbled awkwardly forward.

“No!”

We shall be safe.

~

I woke up hot and very confused. Also an enormous wave of sadness.

“Whaaatt…”

“Alaye?”

“Does someone have a fever…”

“Alaye!” I think it was Uro who ran towards my bed. He knelt on the floor and stared up at me.

“Whoooaaaa…”

He cocked his head. Then grinned. “Wow Alaye, I see what solar flares do to people now when they don’t kill.”

“Head...hurts…” I gripped my head.

He reached up and pulled my hands away from my hair. “That won’t help.”

“You’re...pretty…”

Uro raised an eyebrow. “Thanks?”

I stared at him. Despite looking a bit tired, I found him somewhat gorgeous with his messy blonde hair and wide brown eyes.

I threw my head back onto the pillow.

“Why the f**k do we live on Venus???”

Uro started laughing.

“FRICKING GREENHOUSE EFFECT!”

“SPED AWAAAAYYY!!”

“Alaye, hush, Venus doesn’t exist anymore.”

“Whaaaat?”

“The sun swallowed it four years ago.”

“But what about my family?”

“Alaye, we live on Earth.”

“EARTH IS SUPPOSED TO BE GREEN!”

“WHAT---WHY---”

“WHAT IS THIS LIFE??!!”

Uro grabbed my wrists as I struggled to get off the bed.

“Alaye, relax,” he said.

His strength obviously excelled mine, since I just froze as he stared into my eyes.

I breathed hard and then relaxed my muscles.

“Why,” I said tightly, with my eyes open and unblinking, “Do we live on Venus.”

~

The days following the solar flare were identical. Each day I went a bit psychotic, but the symptoms were slowing down. The only things left were the occasional insomnia and mood swings.

Uro continued to be patient with me, which was good. He’d seen my worst and best altogether.

I always woke in the night with a throbbing headache, and Uro would instantly come from his bunk and stay with me the rest of the night to help calm me. During the day, I’d have these humongous mood swings that affected everyone and anyone, as I would have tempers and tantrums to the max.

I’d also have weird happy moments, and sad moments, and strange moments where I’d try to make out with someone, usually Uro.

It was interesting.

This day was no different. I was in an odd mood where I followed Uro everywhere, which was normal, but since I was in a bizarre mood, Uro wanted no part of it. At least I could not tell if he did.

My mood swings were calming down, yet they were still there but less frequent.

“Uuurrrro…” I said.

“Yes, Alaye?”

“Come hereeee…”

“Why?”

“I wanna….”

“What?”

“Kiiiisss youuu….”

“Alaye, I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“Why nooott?”

“Alaye…”

I walked towards him, as he had turned around to look at me.

“Alaye, don’t. You’re not yourself.”

“Yes I am.” I’d stopped slurring my words.

He looked confused.

I walked closer to him.

“Alaye…”

I cut him off by kissing him on the mouth. He did not pull away at first, but he gently pushed my shoulder off of him after seven seconds.

“Alaye,” he said, this time a bit more seriously. “We need to focus on Leaving, okay? You’re not yourself. Just listen. We have to go.”

“What does that have to do with anything,” I said, gazing at him.

He stared at me, and I saw something flicker in his eyes. He must have realized something.

“The solar flare must have screwed with your brain,” he said. “It must make you think you’re attracted to me for some reason. We can work around that.”

“What?” I said. “Uro, I’m okay.”

“No you’re not if you just kissed me. You’ve never done that before.”

“So?”

He continued to stare. “Alaye, listen. We have to go immediately. Stop talking about this.”

I was kind of hurt. But I decided it’d be best to just ignore that feeling.

“Fine,” I said after a moment. “I don’t care. Let’s just go.”

Uro nodded.”Good. We’re going to Enceladus.”

We shall be safe.

Are we?

~

I found myself being quite hurried to pack my belongings into an entirely too small bag, since I wanted to bring far more than the space given. It did not help that the belongings I left behind could not be retrieved either. They’d be on the Earth, then the Earth would be swallowed by the sun, then everything would be blasted into space. Fun.

“Alaye! We need to go!”

“I know!” I shouted back. “Give me a moment, maybe?”

Uro sounded impatient. “Two minutes!”

I sighed and continued to throw clothes and pictures into my bag, without even glancing at some of them.

When I finally barrelled down the stairs to go with him, he looked even more impatient than he sounded.

“Well, sorry,” I said. “I kinda sorta don’t know why you want to Leave so abruptly, and it kinda sorta caught me off guard…”

“Whatever,” Uro said, biting down on his lip, almost to prevent him from saying something else. “Let’s just go.”

Author's Note

this is a scifi I've been working on for a few days. it isn't finished yet, but i hope you like it so far!
Also there is a 75% chance I'm seeing The 1975 on December 5 in NY! Wish me luck, I hope I can go! I just need to convince my dad to buy these resale tickets I found...

Reviews

[Amber Lily]

This is great! What a fun time period to write about! It's obviously a high stress situation, I wonder what they will do and if they will be able to survive. I love astronomy so this also strikes a personal interest. Keep going you have a great idea :)

[Ma'at]

thank you! :)

[Laura Lynn]

wow, very creative, what sci-fi books or movies are you into/have you seen lately

[Ma'at]

actually none that i remember I'm just into astronomy

[Troy Henson]

Great write. Well done. Keep it up.

Troy

[Ma'at]

thank you very much x

[Cara]

Hello darling I see your read request and raise you a review.
Personally, I like this a lot! I think the time system was a great idea and well-explained, and I like how the names seemed to change as the Earth progressed in its life-cycle (does this make sense? Like I like how they're different than current names.). I also think you did a really good job explaining and talking about astronomy - like the stages of the sun and solar flares and how different planets had different moons that could potentially host life (like is that for real or for story? Either way it's rad). The tense tone works too! In such a high-stress situation, I'd be amazed if the characters weren't tense. Great job! :)

[Cara]

oh by the way when you go to use curse words is that your doing of the bleeping or is that the website?

[Ma'at]

yay!
thank you! yes that was kind of hard to do, but i managed. the names are purposely different, courtesy of my imagination, but they are real names! just google it and see :) the moons, it is very possible they host life actually! Europa is a frozen ocean of water, and astronomers are talking about going there someday! Enceladus is just my favorite moon, but has geysers of water on its surface, so it is also a bit likely it has early life too :) thank you so much though! x

[Ma'at]

the bleeping is the website btw :)

[Lotus Flower]

I love the concept of the story placed so far ahead! It really drew me in

[Ma'at]

thank you! x