I woke up early, surprised at first to be surrounded by thick, stuffy, almost red-coloured air and multicolour buildings. Then I remembered what happened last night. I was working late at night because I was writing extra articles for the 'The Moon' and International Geographic when I took a wrong turn from my usual way home. Suddenly, I found myself in front of a door. It was circle-shaped with lines going across the two sides of the door, branching out; almost like the conductive tracks of a circuit board. The door did not split vertically down the middle, but horizontally. Coming off the 'branches' and the gap between the two doors was a green-ish, lime coloured light.
The light wasn't just glowing, it was pulsing. Pulsing to my exact heartbeat. It was then that I ignored my 'common sense' voice in my head and stepped closer to the door to find a way to open it. After searching the door and the area surrounding it, I didn't find any controls or ways to open it. I gave up and touched the wall; tracing my finger along the pulsing line. It was then that I heard a click. Then a boom, like something heavy fell. Then the special jade bracelet that my grandparents gave me started glowing, no, pulsing, the same lime-green colour as the gap in the door did. The door suddenly rotated exactly 90º so that the gap was no longer horizontal, but vertical. The door opened, and first came a bright variety of lights. Next, thick and heavy fog-like air came out, settling on the ground and creeping across the 'border' from its side to where I was. After the fog settled, I could see through. It looked otherworldly.
I stepped inside, ignoring (yet again) the sensible voice in my head saying not to. As I passed the 'border' separating my world from theirs, I felt a bit nauseous; like when an aeroplane takes off. However, I didn't have much time to dwell on that feeling, or how it came to me because as I walked through, the door immediately closed behind me. It sealed itself and went back to the way it was just a minute ago. I tried opening the door again, doing exactly what I did before when I had opened it. It didn't work. I sighed and decided to find a place to sleep. That was how I got here. Right now, I'm in a dark alleyway that is considerably far away from other living beings. I slept on the cold, slightly wet and slimy ground.
It seems like this place could have been an alternate reality of Earth (or even a future version of Earth). There were many similarities between Earth and this place. The cities and buildings looked otherworldly at first, but as I studied it some more, they had basic elements of buildings we had. They had glass or plastic (or some other see-through material) on all of their buildings, be it the dome on top of a circular building in front of me or the windows on all of them. The glass even made bridges that connected every single building (for as far as I could see) to each other. They also have a helipad of some sort, but it's for rockets. The rockets, as I have observed, are not for the transport of organisms, but for shipment of foods, equipment and more.
They have roads and cars too, but not as we know it. The roads are bright neon yellow with green stripes along it (I assume to keep drivers more alert). The cars look like they came out of a cartoon, or the 1970s, except they are very souped up. On most of the cars I've seen, they have enormous, over the top stereo and radio systems mounted on the back end of the car, blasting so loud that I could hear it from my tiny corner in the alleyway which is at least 80 meters from the nearest road. On some of them, they even have 'boosters' of some sort, be it rockets that spit fire or jets that fire out a plasma-looking substance or even turbines that look like they came straight out of a 'pod racer' from Star Wars; going at such high speeds that it looks like the car is hovering off the ground. And at least 5-6 of the cars I've seen has army tank fixtures. Some have the turret of the tank (but thankfully, do not shoot anything; only making a loud 'boom' noise for the fun of it). Others have the tracks of a tank but have the body of a car. A select few even have both of those traits. One thing about the cars I have noticed is that there will never, ever, be one that has no modifications. Never.
The environment is completely foul. Utterly disgusting. Thick, foggy air surrounds the place and it has a terrible stench, like that of a cigarette, but multiplied by a 100. The colour of the sky is literally red. Reddish-orange to be exact. It looked like the result of what was to happen to present day Earth in a matter of years, maybe 50 if we're lucky. It's what would happen when we finish burning our fossil fuels. When we cut and burn down the last of our trees; our green; our nature. When our atmosphere is filled up with too much CO2 that it becomes hard to breathe. When we savour our every last breath. When we slowly choke to death. The death we have caused. Yet these people; these living beings, manage to survive. How, I don't know.
YOU ARE READING
The Mysterious World of Otu
Science FictionBasically, a story meant for English. Liked the storyline so I continued with it. Set in a future not too long from now. Don't expect me to update that often.
