Together, We Stand

Chapter 1

A gentle breeze swept into the room as the window slid upward. Kate woke up to a bright blue sky staring down at her. It was 8 a.m. She could hear the shuffling of shoes in the living room. She got up, got dressed, and walked to the dining table for breakfast. She selected the cream puffs from the menu card that popped up as she sat down. The empty plate in front of her was, at once, filled with cream puffs. She nonchalantly bit into one and busied herself on her phone.

Daniel Cartel sat down next to Kate. "Good morning Katie," he said. He wore a black and blue business suit. He worked at the Land Restoration department, and they were to make an important discovery today. "' Morning Dad!" Katie replied. Daniel ordered his breakfast. The walls turned light pink, and the blue of the sky shimmered out. From the open window, you could hear the silent swooshing of ABCs, the Air-borne cars. One of these ABCs parked itself outside the Cartels' dome.

Their neighbor, and Michelle's colleague at work, Felix, rang the line, and her face appeared at the head of the table. Daniel looked up. He scrunched his eyes and muttered to himself, "Why is she here so early in the morning? I hope everything's fine..." Felix waved frantically at the camera, and Daniel opened the dome's main door. Felix's footsteps rang loudly along the hallway and into the kitchen. She looked troubled.

"Is Michelle around?" she questioned Daniel. "No, no, she went off to work early in the morning, didn't tell me why.", he replied. Felix shook her head and sat down at the table, her head resting on her arm. "No, no, this can't be happening.", she mumbled. "What can't be happening?" Daniel asked. He got up to sit next to Felix and ordered her a glass of water. "Haven't you been watching the news, Daniel?! It's worse than we have been preparing for.", Felix said, her voice trembling. The walls once again changed color, a weird mix of green, blue, and pink.

Kate looked up from her phone. The conversation seemed to have unnerved her. She got up to look out at the waters - their gentle motion always calmed her. But today, it was unusually silent. Only a few ABCs were zooming about, people rushing to work at the last minute. Her classes did not start until 10 a.m. and, surfing her phone had proven useless. She felt a restlessness in the air.

All the other domes she could see floating over the miles and miles of water were barren. The only people who lived in this vicinity were three or four families, including theirs. Kate, accustomed to seeing the empty domes, wished for them to be filled with life again. But today, their ghostly mien seemed to chill her to the bones. Her dome's walls temporarily turned to an icy blue before going back to the original shade of the blue sky. Slightly annoyed, she switched off the mood lighting.

She wanted to open up her phone and find out what it was that seemed to have shaken Felix. She was one of the people Kate had looked up to all her life. Felix was a headstrong, determined woman, charismatic and yet fierce when need be. Her hand shook as she opened the news app on her phone. The blue waters made for a pretty background for her phone's screen.

#

Michelle Cartel was the head of Disaster Control in the Asian-Pacific region. At 45, she was living her dream. At the moment, though, her head was aching. She had skipped breakfast today when she had to arrive at work an hour earlier than usual. Inside the massive dome of Disaster Control, there was chaos unlike she had ever seen before. The dome's structure was breathtaking. It had a semi-circle structure made of pieces of diamond-shaped glass, and hovering stands full of sensors and gadgets gathering data from across the globe lined the walls. It often felt like she had stepped into another reality every time she entered in here.

She stood at the entrance as the voice box asked for her name, which verified her voice. Following this, she walked into the lobby of the dome. She brisk-walked to her cabin, the topmost one, the stairs automatically paving the way below her, well-timed with her walk. She had always loved the view from the dome's zenith. Especially, in the mornings, during sunrise, she would see the golden globe rise, dramatically changing the color of the sky. But today, she could not see the sun peeking out.

However, the walls of the dome were a dark red, the sure-fire sign of panic. Michelle called Zoe up to her office. She was a short woman of 30, bubbly and faltering most of the time but observant of the tiniest of details. Michelle had met her in one of the training courses she hosted for the department, and she had immediately appointed Zoe as her secretary. "Zoe, what's wrong today? The office has not been in such chaos in three millenniums.", she asked.

"Ma'am, well, there has been an anomaly detected in the data collected by the solar sensors this morning. We are not able to figure out the huge surge of radiation emanating from the sun. It has been steadily increasing over the last few hours, and none of our workers have been able to pinpoint the cause. The Space Management department has already been alerted, but there is no information from them yet. If the radiation level goes beyond 600 sieverts per hour, it may penetrate the ozone layer.", Zoe answered. Her promptness and to-the-point attitude were why Michelle liked having Zoe around. But Michelle faltered and sat down on her chair. The part of the wall above her had turned into an even deeper red.

Michelle ran the scenario in her head and knew that they had little time to tighten up their defense if they expected to help prevent any substantial damage if the anomaly was anywhere near the truth. She allowed Zoe to go back to her desk and ordered a glass of water from the menu. She downed the glass of water and looked at the picture of her, Kate, and Daniel, sitting on her desk.

She picked up the frame, thinking of theirsleeping faces back at home. She wished she did not have to leave for work soearly every day. But today was not the day to worry about it. She placed theframe back on the desk and brought up her computer's screen. She looked up thenews posted. It was of utmost importance to make sure they did not postanything incorrect that could cause panic. That would be the last thing shewanted. Disaster control never worked if the people did not believe in them.Unfortunately, she did not know that it would be her who would lose her beliefin them by the end of the day.