Chapter 4
Confrontations and Choe
Year 2095
Halle's POV
A pair of hands grabbed my arms and pulled me up. They kept on shaking me until the darkness behind my eyes bled out into a blinding white. My eyes hurt, due to the unexpected brightness, and I groaned.
And suddenly, I was in my bedroom lying underneath a number of tangled sheets with my sister Chloe peering over me. Her forehead was furrowed with concern, making her look years older than than her actual age of fifteen. But that tended to happen here, in a world full of enemies and a war threatening to break lose any moment. There was nowhere to escape to, the entire planet was unsafe. They had heard stories, or rather as she liked to think them of, myths, that the planet that they lived on right now was once blue and green, when seen above from space, that there was once a time when water was freely available. She had even heard that the Earth was laden with forests of all kinds, the extents to which people went to exaggerate their points! They would never fail to amaze her.
Chloe let go of my arms and stepped back.
"You scared the shit out of me, Halle," she grumbled, snapping me out of my stupor.
I propped myself up on my elbows and looked around my room at the posters on the walls and stacks of CDs in the corner, taking comfort in their familiarity. My rarely touched electric guitar rested haphazardly against the window seat, a pleasing contrast to my stuffed animal collection.
I eyed the dreaded alarm clock. Three minutes until it blared uncontrollably. The observation was unclear, hazy, like I was not quite in my body yet.
"Well?" Chloe said, crossing her arms. She was still in her pajamas, but her heavy-handed makeup was meticulously applied.
"Well what?" I repeated.
"Um, hello! Any explanation why your screams made me put down my mascara in mid-stroke and come rushing in here?"
"You have good hearing?"
"Halle!"
Her voice bordered on a shrill hissy fit. Chloe was always a degree or two away from full-on teenage angst.
"Well, I don't know. I had a bad dream. Or something...
