|YA featured story|
Welcome to 2325.
The natural world is no longer habitable, the government has been all but privatised and the 15-billion strong population has spent the last 170 years crammed into a single man-made continent.
When her father's...
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"Do you think it'll hold up?" I asked, tensing as another blast of wind buffeted the mattress over our heads. The complete darkness of our hideout intensified the sounds of destruction outside. Rain poured through the holes in the roof, sounding like an urban waterfall as it splattered against the tiles of the bathroom floor and every so often the cabin shivered with the sound of a particularly loud roll of thunder.
Zaphron lay still beside me, the steady rhythm of his breaths pushing his side against mine. "Should do," he said. "At least we're not in the Eastern Territory. Have you seen the radar?"
I propped myself up on my elbows and blinked on my Lens. The bright intensity of my overlays gave me a fright. With no background light to compete with, they were blinding. I adjusted my eyes and saw that Zaphron was right—the swirling expanse of cloud on the radar covered most of the continent, but the darkest patches containing high winds were all concentrated around the Eastern Territory. My stomach knotted at the thought of Mum battling out the storm in her apartment alone.
"Everything okay?" Zaphron asked, making me realise I hadn't drawn breath for a good half-minute.
"Just worried about Mum," I said, my voice sounding brittle. I blinked off the overlay and darkness took over again.
"I'm sure she'll be fine," he said shifting beside me. "In fact, she's probably doing better than us, waiting out the storm in a reinforced high-rise—not trapped in a bath."
He had a point, but it didn't stop me worrying. Even reinforced buildings had their limits.
As if he could sense the concern in my silence, Zaphron continued, "I mean, not that I'm complaining about the company or anything. At least I'm not stuck in here with Axel."
That made me a laugh. "As if. You two would be snuggled up tight. He'd be the big spoon."
Zaphron chuckled, rolling onto his side, his damp chest touching my shoulder. "I'll have you know, I'm always the big spoon when Axel and I snuggle."
"Spoken like someone with a little spoon complex."
He laughed again, this time the sound came from higher up and I wondered if he'd propped himself up on one elbow. "Did you let Delta know you're okay?" he asked.
"Oh." I blinked on my Lens again, guilt taking over the lurching of my insides. I'd been so preoccupied with Zaphron and the storm, I hadn't thought to fill Delta in. She was probably halfway through planning a search party or accusing Zaphron of tricking us and handing me over to Zenith.
Sure enough, I had two messages from her. The first asked why we weren't back yet, and the second was a worried follow-up to the lack of reply to the first. I swiped for my holo-key overlay and decided to roll over so I could type quicker—forgetting just how tight the space was.
"Hey—careful," Zaphron said, catching my elbow as it knocked into him.
"Shit, sorry." I froze on my side, my chest pressed against his. The beat of his heart drummed into mine. "Did I hit you in the face?"
