Short Stories

The Underground City

     I was startled awake by someone knocking on my door. I sat up, stretched, and wandered over to the door. I unlocked it, the door swinging open to reveal my best friend, Amber Scott.
     "Hey, Amber. What do you need?" I ask, knowing that she would only awaken me if she needed something or if something was happening.
     "We are running low on food again," she said, and I groaned.
     "I'm guessing the garden just isn't cutting it then," I said, and she sighed.
     "Ava, I came here to ask you if the suits were ready for use," she said. The suits she was referring to were one of my inventions that should protect people from the harsh cold of the planet's surface.
     "I finished them yesterday, but I didn't get enough time to test them yet," I replied with a yawn.
     "How about you go get ready and wake up fully, then meet me and the others in the training hall." Amber then pushed me towards the shower.
     "M'kay see you later," I said, and she walked out of the room.

     About an hour later, I walked into the training hall to meet up with the rest of my team.
     "Alright! Now that everyone is here, let's discuss the food supply issue," Amber said as I took a seat on a bench next to one of my teammates, Clara Bay. "We still have a while till the artificial sun is up and running, and even then, it will only cover a small area," I voiced, and Amber nodded.
     "For now, let's run some tests on Ava's suits, then we will go up to the surface and assess the condition. If we can figure out how bad it is, then maybe we can get some more info on how to get the artificial sun done faster," Amber said, and everyone agreed. We walked to the lab to start the testing. The first test would help us measure how well the suits would hold up in the cold climate. The suits were inside tubes specially designed for these types of tests.
     "Initiating the cryo-testing sequence. Powering up now," my lab partner, Isabelle Robinson said. The tube fogged up, and we could hear the air coming in. After a few minutes had passed, the machine stopped whirring. The locks opened, revealing the suit fully intact. I examined it further and turned around to face everyone.
     "Test One was a success," I reported, and everyone cheered.
     "Initiating durability test," Isabelle said. Around the year 2410, the wind speeds of Earth had picked up. After the sun went out, it got even worse. This test was designed to see if it could stand up to the high winds, and keep the person inside alive. We could hear the air whipping around inside the tube like a category five hurricane. This time, we waited close to 15 minutes for the machine to turn off. It opened once again, and I repeated the checking process.
     "Test Two was also a success," I said, and everybody cheered.

     After running a few more tests, we all suited up and headed to the elevator, which would take us to the surface. I was trying not to freak out. We haven't been to the surface in months, not since the sun disappeared. The temperature had gotten way too extreme for any human to survive. That's why the surviving humans all lived in an old abandoned military base near Earth's core; the only place where it was still warm. After what felt like forever, the elevator dinged and the doors opened. We switched on our headlamps to reveal what looked like something out of a horror movie. There was ice as far as the eye could see; dead plants and trees were barely visible under all the ice.
     "Oh my gosh," Starla Evercrest, one of the younger girls, gasped.
     "I didn't expect it to be this bad!" I said, taking some mental notes on the condition of the planet. Isabelle took a few samples of the ice and the bark of a dead tree for us to examine when we got back.
     "Well, there is nothing here, so I guess we should head back," my other best friend, Paige Brown said.
     "At least now we know how bad the damage is," I said, trying to brighten the mood.

     We all headed back down to the base. I was on the way to my room when I was stopped by one of Amber's college friends, Taylor Bryant.
     "Ava, you've seen the damage. Do you think that we can fix it?" she asked and I sighed.
     "I don't know yet, but we have to have faith," I said, and Taylor nodded.
     "We can do anything if we believe!" she said enthusiastically. I laughed and walked off to my room to think. 'Taylor has a point' I thought to myself. 'I'm good with technology, but I'm no genius. What if there really is no way to fix this? This could be my last week on Earth. Might as well say my goodbye's...'

The End

°•I can't believe I found this. I wrote this for a project in science back in sixth grade. It's fun to see how far I've come with my writing since then. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as 6th grade me enjoyed writing this.
Feel free to comment your opinions or thoughts!
Hope y'all have a wonderful day/night! - Dragon•°