Where happiness doesn't exist

Chapter 1

I was there, under this dying tree, lost in my own thought. Why does it all have to be this way? I can remember how it was right here on earth. It wasn't a perfect world, but it was so much better than today. Everyone (well almost everyone) was happy and free. But today, you can no longer see somebody smile. It's all over. All the good memories will forever stay in our mind wishing that someday our world will be in peace again.

This is it, the 3rd world war. It's the worse war the humanity had ever experienced and it all started in 2015. Back then, nobody could know where all this was going. Of course I am talking about the terrorists attacks. They were doing such horrible things to innocent people. They killed more than Hitler did on the second world war and they warn't only jews. They were Christians, Judaists and even Muslims. Why did they do that you say? Well, no one knows. We tough first that they wanted to covert us to islamic religion by letting us choose to die our to become a muslim. But, when they started to shot at muslims, we tough of something else. The only possible answer that we found was that they wanted to concur the world. Well, they kind of succeeded.

Suddenly it becomes hard for me to breathe and before I can do anything, everything goes black...

*****

— Amy!

I open my eyes and start looking around. I see that I'm not outside anymore, I'm lying in my bed and my mother is right next to me. What happened?

— Dear god never do that again Amy, you scared me to death.

— What? What did I do I can't remember.

— You stayed outside for to long without your mask and you fell unconscious due to the lack of oxygen. If I didn't come to get you in time you would be dead at this moment!

Oh yeah I remember, and ran outside after a fight with my parents to get some "alone time" and I was so frustrated that I forgot my mask of oxygen. Now due to the extreme amount of pollution, our ozone layer is broken and the rays of the sun enter readily the surface of the earth and burns it very fast. So, there is almost no more water, plants and oxygen. We have to wear a mask that covers our mouth and transforms nitrogen in oxygen for us to breathe. My father created a system that does the same as our masks but bigger to modify the air all around our house.

The pollution has accelerated the climate change also and now we are running out of places to live since there is so much natural catastrophes that ruins our homes. Our world is at tree quarter destroyed and like if this wasn't enough, the 3rd world war was declared. I hate what humans did to this planet. They are responsible for all of this and they didn't even do something when they had the chance to.

— How much time did I stay unconscious?

— About 3 hours Amy. I was so worried.

— I'm sorry mom... I was just in a bad mood and I didn't think before I ran outside.

I stand up, straighten a little and look at my room. It's a bit dirty and there is no colour on my walls, everything is made out of wood. Our house isn't the best, but it does the trick. It's very small, dark and has not a lot of furniture, but the one we got has a pretty ancient look. We don't have the time to clean up the place, because we are too busy to look for food and to hide from the terrorists, since there is no more money or stores. We have to move a lot as well, according to the climate that isn't prosperous for us. So, this house is the 6th one I've got since the war started.

— You have to be more responsible Amy! You're almost 17 years old!

— I know mom it won't happen again I promise.

— Good. Now get some rest you know you have a big day tomorrow.

— Oh yeah right I'm suppose to be hunting with dad... great.

I sit on my bed at the same time my mother leaves the room. I pick one of my favourite books from my library and start reading. This is now the only thing that distracts me from the reality: reading puts me in an other world. Everything is so perfect in books, everybody has a prefect life and finds true love. I wish someday that I'll find my happy ending as well, but it seems almost impossible at this point of life.

Tomorrow will be an other hard day. My father and I are supposed to go to the North Mountain to haunt. It's the only place, in what was before Colorado (United States), where there's still a little bit of vegetation and animals. All the rest of the state is mostly burned. I don't really like haunting because I hate to hurt the animals and watch them suffer. Some people don't understand that an animal or even a plant is a living creature. But, I don't have a choice, ether I haunt or ether I die of hunger.

It's getting dark, so I close my book and I go down stairs to eat a snack. As I eat, I hear something that sounds like an explosion. I lift my head quickly and look around. I approach a window to see what happened: the house right next to ours was in flames. I scream as I hear some people shooting. My mother, father and sister appeared in the kitchen and dad starts packing stuff quickly in a back pack. My sister Elia has an horrifying look on her face and I start getting worried. My mother pulls my arm and shouts:

— Come on Amy, we have to get out of here!!

I run as fast as I can outside the house. We run right to a car were the key were still in the engine and my father gave to each of us a mask of oxygen. We drove the farther away from our house very fast then we slowed down. As I take a look to my sister to see if she was okay, she begins to cry.

— No Elia don't cry, I say as I rub her back with my hand.

I stroked her long blond hair and she cries on my shoulder. After all she's younger than me and it's kind of my job of big sister to be there for her. She doesn't deserve any of this. Elia is such a great person and I'm so happy to have her as my sister. Sure sometimes we fight but that's what sisters do. After we apologize and give each other a hug and all goes back on tracks.

— Where are we going? I ask after a few moments.

— We are going to the North Mountain, my father answers.

— It's the only place where we are safe from the attacks, my mother added.

I lean my head on the window and try to sleep a little. I know that the North Mountain is about 17 hours from were we are. It's going to be a long trip.