Life On This Planet

Chapter 1

'Dystopian futures are a thing of the past.'

-The Founders, 2054

A series of massive electrical storms unfolded across the horizon on the afternoon of my fifteenth birthday. Brilliant flashes of white and purple lightning ignite the sky as we submerge our dome quickly. A deafening crack of thunder follows a few seconds later but its loudness is dulled as our house sinks further into the grey ocean.

Amidst the atmospheric spectacle, I voice my discontent to Mum.

'It's not fair!' I complain crossly. 'I'm supposed to be on a submarine heading to the surface right now.' The frustration is evident in my tone.

Mum, continuing to sip her coffee and watch the storm unleash its unpredictable fury consoles me, 'Zee, I know you're disappointed, but the surface will still be there in three months and you will get to do your exploring. You know Earth's weather patterns were changed by the Great Planetary War. It's just not safe to be on the surface right now.'

She seems calm but, on the inside, I know she's secretly happy. Mum never wanted me to go to the surface in the first place.

Along with twenty other kids from our sector, I was meant to start a stint with the Human History Archives department, but electrical storms can last from a week up to a month.

Much to my dismay and my dad's delight, we are doing the ocean farming rotation first. I will be on his crew, harvesting kelp forests for the next couple of weeks. This is not what I expected from today, thinking back to this morning.

Tap! Tap! Thud! I rolled over in bed, opened one eye, and groaned in the early morning light filtering through from the water's surface. A giant eye looked back at me reproachfully and unblinking.

'It's too early, Fox Two,' I complain, pulling the covers over my head. 'I need five more minutes.' Thud! THUD! The entire dome shakes and Mum buzzes my room.

'Zee, your alarm clock is shaking the house again. Please feed him.' She says sleepily.

'Alright, already! I'm up.' I jump out of bed and go over to my room viewing panel. I yawn and press my hand to the glass window on my side, and a huge orange feeding tentacle meets it on the other side.

'Who's a good giant squid? Yes, you are!' I use my baby voice over the intercom that projects sound outside the dome. My voice sounds garbled in the water, but he seems to understand as he swims around in happy circles.

I try to remember the dream I was having while I talk to Fox Two. There were flashes of green and I was standing in a strange city with a huge wall. It's starting to fade now but it felt so real. It was probably from staying up all night learning about ancient humans.

Fox Two does another happy swim around my side of the house. Everyone lives underwater these days, but I don't know many people with a giant 18-meter squid outside their bedroom. For one thing, giant squid are supposed to be deep sea creatures. Still, Fox Two seems happy outside our dome, which only submerges two hundred feet into the ocean. Fox One, his mum showed up two years ago when I was thirteen. But the species only live for a few years, and before she died, she left Fox Two with us. He was so tiny back then.

I close the viewing panel for a few minutes and dress quickly. It's May third, 2422 - my fifteenth birthday. That means...holy smokes...I quickly check my communicator. There's a message saying the child protective shield is now offline. That means that I am officially a young adult. A new message comes in as I stare at the screen. YA protective shield is now in place. When I'm eighteen, that one will end, and the adult shield will take over.