Corinna's Journal: Entry One

Prologue

I was born on a sunny day. I know that at that point seeing full sunlight on the mainland was a bit like seeing a shooting star- just as rare and short-lived- but here on Atlantis we still got a fair bit. We weren't very industrialized, my parents say, and so our smog was nearly all secondhand. Of course, that was before... My hair shone like the sun on that day, and my eyes sparkled like the ocean on a sunny day- my mother swears by both facts. Truly, I wouldn't know. You see, I am 17 years old and it's been nearly 15 years since the sun has been seen on Atlantis. I cannot remember ever seeing the sun. We are not old atlantis that sank beneath the waves: We are New Atlantis, the only human settlement left on earth, as far as we know. We have tried to contact the rest of the world, but all attmepts have failed. 'Sets don't work past a mile offshore and explorers who pass the five mile mark do not come back.

Clouds have covered the earth from some unknown catastrophe and my hair no longer shines in the sun; still, life on New Atlantis goes on. We have sunlamps to keep the crops alive, and other little bits of technology to make our like easier. I don't mind it. It's the only life I've ever known.

A year ago my mother passed the 5 mile point. She was on an expedition to rediscover what has become of our earth. She has not returned, and my father and I are hearbroken. I miss her. She named me Corinna, which means poet. I may not be a poet, but I will write the story of what happened to her one day. I will find out and record it. I will record it in beautiful, flowing words- words that move the eyes to tears. I will make my mother a herione of the new world.

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