The Post-World

Chapter Three

When I got home my father was sitting in the living room, waiting for me to get home. He had a somber look on his face.

"They informed me about everything..." He looked at the ground. "I don't like this..."

I sat by him. "You knew they'd do this eventually dad." His expression didn't change.

"I know... But I didn't expect it would happen to MY son!" He stood up. "Goddess... Why? Why you?!" He turned to me. "You don't know what's out there! Maybe they didn't kill them all! There could still be some left! They don't know!" He was trying to hold back tears. "Son! Do you even understand this?!" He glared at me.

"We were trained to leave eventually. This had to happen someday." I tried to calm him.

"But why now? I thought it'd take longer to be ready to settle. You're not ready are you?" He looked at me with tears beading down his face.

"I'm ready dad. Everyone is ready. We've been ready." I assured him.

He was very quiet. I stood up and put my hand on his shoulder. "It's ok dad. Everything will be alright. I promise."

He looked me in the eyes. "You've turned into a beautiful, strong man... You're mother would be so proud of you. You're so much stronger than we were." He hugged me tight. "Just promise you'll be ok. I can't loose you. You're my only son and I can't have you gone forever. Not like this!" I hugged him back.

"I promise dad. I'll be ok and I'll see you again when everything is ready." He broke the hug and looked at me.

"I love you son. And I know you'll be alright, but I'll always worry." He patted my shoulder. "I wish it wasn't like this though..."

"I love you too dad." I hugged him again. "I'll be fine."

I don't remember how long we stood together but when we stopped I knew it was late. We didn't say anything when we stopped. We just went into our rooms.

I laid in bed a very long time thinking about everything that happened. I couldn't believe we were actually going to leave. And to be honest... I was actually excited about it. I looked forward to touching the earth and seeing everything my father had. He even told me that he was originally from Michigan and that's where I'd be! I did wonder about how we were suppose to fix things though... Sure, we had been taught so many skills to survive but... They wanted us to thrive. But how were we suppose to know when we've gone far enough?

As you can imagine I didn't get very much sleep that night. When I saw it was 4:00 A.M I gave up on sleep and got dressed in my casual clothes which consisted of black pants and a plain black t-shirt with my position numbered on my chest. I then noticed that there was a message left on my intercom. I pressed play.

"We understand some of you may be having difficulty sleeping so we have sent you all silent messages that will be deleted after 7:30 AM this morning. We have left the auditorium unlocked. If you wish to relax with comrades then you are allowed to precede to the auditorium. Thank you for your service." The message ended with the delete tone. This was exceedingly odd. Curfew had always been mandatory for all parents to set reasonably every year. I knew some of us broke it but this was different. I left my home and made my way towards the auditorium. Really, we had many rooms that served the same purpose but this was the largest so we named it properly.

When I got there I saw a lot of my comrades gathered. Some of whom, I didn't even know about. I moved to the window along with several others that were baffled by the experience and just stared out the window.

"It's all so crazy isn't it?" A blonde girl stood next to me.

I looked over and responded. "Incredibly... I wonder what it's going to be like." I returned to looking through the window. I read her position number and it read 41901. I'm not especially good at figuring out what they mean other than being able to tell their rank. From the 4 I could tell she was a junior command officer but that was it. My first number being 2 meant that I was a junior commander. The ranks in reality were little more than titles though. Really, the numbers shown who was your lower, equal, or superior. Being a 2 meant only a 1 could take charge over me in some situations. But that is almost pointless because once you become a recognized adult your rank gets more complicated.

She looked at me again. "So... You're Lucifer, right?"

I was a little startled. "Umm, yes... How could you tell?" I glanced at her for a second.

"Me and some friends watched your physical exam. You did really well." She looked through the window again. It really was fascinating outside. I really saw moonlight for the first time as it landed on the trees. It made a slight blue tint to everything.

"Thank you. I've practiced a lot." I said.

"Well you were one of the best I've seen... I'm kind of happy we leave soon though. Now I don't need to take anymore exams." She giggled a little.

"Hmm. I guess that is nice." I didn't mind the exams but by her size I doubt she enjoyed the physical exams. She was fit but too small to impress the instructors with her strength. "What's your name?"

"June." She was very pretty and short. She also had pale blue eyes. Her hair was also a medium length which was odd, considering nearly all of us had very long hair.

"Why is your hair not very long?" I had to ask.

She laughed a little. "Well it's not suppose to be. Around a year ago my hair was burned in a training exercise. Luckily I didn't loose it all though. The girl that cut my hair had to take so much off though." She put her fingers through mine for a moment. "Yours is really nice though."

I was a little surprised that she touched my hair. It was kind of rare for any of us to touch each other. "I think yours looks good still." I returned to look out the window.

She sighed. "You don't talk very much." She looked out the window.

"I'm sorry. I don't get the opportunity to talk to many people. Well, outside of my family and classmates. And I think you are too young to be my classmate." I responded.

"It's ok... And you're right I'm not. I'm only 15 so I'm a little bit lower on the ladder than you." She looked to her side. "Well I'm going to go talk to some of my friends so I hope to see you around." She ran over to her friends and I just watched our ship move above the trees.

A few hours must have went by because soon the sun rose above the trees. Most of us had already left the auditorium but for those of us who stayed we were amazed by it. Sadly when I looked at it directly it hurt my eyes... It was very stupid of me to do... But really how was I suppose to know that then? And most people did the same thing! This is stupidly minuscule though so I will get off this subject. Once I became adjusted to the sunlight I looked over to the clock. It read 6:30 AM. I still had some time before dad would get up but I figured I should sleep while I had the chance so I left the auditorium. Once in the hallway I could see that some of us decided to hangout in the hallway. So most of the way home the walls were lined with classmates discussing our odd circumstance. Some of them talked about it in a similar tone to a party, dooms day, and revolutions. I wasn't sure what to think of it all yet so I didn't join in any of their discussions. I just walked home and later sank into my bed for a very unsound sleep.