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Prologue - 370 Years Ago

It rained fire on Earth that night. Just like almost every night since the last of the ozone layer had disappeared 3 years ago. The alarm sounded and everyone ran for cover. The sky was shrouded in ash, making everyday a freezing hell. The ground was littered with the burning bodies of those unfortunate enough not to make it to the ship.

The spaceship, rightly named Hope, was at the entrance to Haven, it's doors open, the crew helping survivors to board. Fireballs rained down through the holes they had created in the forcefield and burned down everything they could: trees, buildings, humans. Haven rang with the screams of its people. The forcefield could no longer protect the people from the radioactive rays of the Sun.

Once every single one of the survivors was on board, Hope took off, reaching speeds deemed impossible a thousand years ago.

The passengers took one last look at their forsaken planet, the planet which they had called home until a few seconds ago.

Haven, their place of shelter for the last 3 years, was no more than a speck receding from view, it's beauty, the last spot of green in a sea of brown, reduced to rubble.

Almost at orbit, all the people could see was brown land and toxic green oceans. The remnants of a beautiful planet now rendered uninhabitable by the very thing that had given it life for millions of years.

Death. Death everywhere.

7 Years Ago

'Never go to the attic, Jaron,' his mother had said. 'It's too dangerous. We wouldn't want you to get hurt, now would we?'
Eight-year-old Jaron shook his head fervently.
'Good. Now run along and go play with your sister.' His mother gave him one of her blinding smiles and wrapped him in a warm hug.

Present Day

Once I was inside the attic, I closed the trapdoor that lead there from my room.

It wasn't the big deal that my mom had made it out to be. I'd been going there almost every day since my mother remarried. Since my mother couldn't save my dad.

At first, I had to creep up the stairs when my parents were asleep, like a goddamn thief. As I grew older, my parents left me alone for longer and longer periods of time. Last year, they went on a honeymoon trip to Tahiti, leaving me to look after my sister, Bella. Together, we made the trapdoor with the tools from Dad's long forgotten mechanical career hidden in the garage. Bella and I always went to the attic together, pretending to be characters from our favourite books.

My classmates always teased me for reading. They think of books as remnants from a long forgotten age. The age when cars stayed on the ground and humans did the housework. But that's my family. We don't get carried away with technology. There is something satisfying about reclining on a couch with a good book in your hands.

But today, I had to go by myself. I needed a place to be myself, not the good child facade I play for the benefit of my step-dad and mum. I was almost sixteen, after all. I needed a place to call home. A place where I could be warm and cozy. And here it was. The attic was the place where I felt the safest. My little corner of the world.

I looked around the room. Light spilled in from the huge framed window overlooking the street. Everyday I looked out of it and everyday I saw the same thing; kids shrieking with delight as they played with their brand new hoverbikes, adults talking to their friends via holograms, robots talking to civilians that seem lonely. And everyday I wished I could be out there with them. Yet another thing I was not allowed to do, and yet another thing I hated my mother for.

I looked away, unable to bear the sight any longer. The perfect cloudless and sunny days sickened me. I longed for something more. When I was younger, I would come up here and stare at the night sky. I had always tried to find the star that had been the centre of our world. The star that we had depended on for life. I always used to think that I could see the blue-green planet that revolved around it, so many light-years away. I could never remember what it was called.

I was yanked away from my thoughts when my head hit a rafter beam. I had been thinking so deeply that I didn't even realise that I had been pacing around the room. I scanned my surroundings, disoriented. There, on top of one of the dozens of dusty cardboard boxes stacked around the room, was a book. A diary, to be exact. It hadn't been there a minute ago, I wasn't sure of it. But then again, a minute ago, I hadn't even realised I was moving around. I walked over to the diary and leaned over to grab it. It had a dark blue leather cover with fancy gold decorations. Close to the bottom, in gold cursive lettering, was written:
Property of Bryan Ashworth.

The diary made a creaking sound as I opened it. In the same cursive writing, the author had written:

If you are reading this, then my mission succeeded, at the cost of my life. The Governors covered it all up. I lost my friends. My family. After a while, I lost my freedom. I was too curious, they said. The Earth was dying. According to them, that's all I needed to know.
And so they tasked me with a final great endeavour. I was to save the world.

I stood up, locked the door,
dusted off one of the cardboard boxes, sat down, and began to read.

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_WinterIsHere_ , over and out.