A Sight to Behold .:Short:.

A Sight to Behold

To be entirely honest I don't know why I'm here. Perhaps it was to whip me into shape or my parents wanted me out of their hair for the summer but I was here nevertheless. Me, along with fourteen other unfortunate souls, where in what I could only describe as boot camp. A desert field in the middle of the mountains with three main structures. Two bunks and a main office, as well equipment you would normally expect in a place like this. In front of the group where the three officers that ran the place. One of them, Grace, was giving us a rundown of the rules and what would be happening here.

I often let my mind wonder and I stopped paying attention after Grace explained the rules. I looked up into the all too bright blue sky. It was false though, the government put a protective shield around the world to save the atmosphere from the smog damage, but I think they just want to kill us faster. Not that the people had any say in it. We never do. Anyway, ever since then people have been whispering that there's area where the shield is open for the purpose of stargazing for three days. The place where it's at is unknown to most but if it's real, I'd like to go to it.

"Alright! Everyone get into groups of the activity you want to do. You have field training, swimming, rock climbing and hiking!" said Grace. She went over to the hiking spots and the other officers went to the other activities. The other kids gravitated towards swimming, rock climbing, and field training. For me, swimming was nice but a little more than half the kids went to it so I can only imagine how bad that would be. Rock climbing was never my thing and field training was just no. So hiking it was. The weather wasn't too bad for it, then again, it was also controlled. I let out a sigh.

I went over to Grace and she smiled. "I don't you know just how many time people skip out on this. Kids just don't enjoy a walk through nature anymore."

"Isn't that the truth. I much prefer it over the city any day." I said back to her. Grace, I have to admit, was a surprise when I met her. I had at first expected her to be a hardass but what I got instead was this awesome Brazilian lady. She was pretty chill but from what I quickly found out, as well as the rest of us, she wasn't afraid to put anyone in their place. I liked that about her.

"Shall we go?" she asked.

"Yeah." The trail started off on the edge of the mountain. It looked out to the desert floor below us as well as a large jagged mountain range in the distence. From what I say, the trail extended to go there as well but with the kind of shape I was in I couldn't make it that far. I knew I couldn't. Because Grace seemed to get this as we only went about halfway up the mountain trail. By the time we got up there, I was wheezing. Seeing this, we started to head back down. The setting sun was to our backs as we walked back. By the time we got back to base, it was dark. The sky looked pretty, but not like it should for it being in the middle of nowhere. I saw only a few specks of light. When I got to the bunker, I told Grace goodnight and went in for what I know would be a short night's sleep.

Over the past three weeks, I spent a lot of time with Grace, going on further hikes and getting to know each other. As luck would have it, we had a lot in common. We had a similar taste in music, our opinions on the world and nature. But one thing I didn't get was her view on what the government did.

"I can understand why they put up the shield." She said "It is for this world's well-being in the long run."

"But what of us? And creatures that inhabit the planet? We're suffering. The planet is getting too hot for us to live and despite that they can make certain areas cooler or hotter depending on what is needed, the smog is still killing us slowly."