I'll Be There For You

CLIVE

Year: 2342

Month: September

Date: 6

Destination: Northern part of Western Earth – Earth

Clive wanted more TV shows. He had probably watched every show ever made. It had killed him a little when they had stopped making them because of the mess that Earth had become.

It was late in the day and Clive was sitting in his living room watching this ancient show called F.R.I.E.N.D.S on his laptop. It was aired back in the 1990s. They had terrible cameras then and the shooting sucked. But he still loved this show. If people found out that he watched a show from the Metal Age – the period between the 1970s and 2130s was referred to as the Metal Age – he'd never hear the end of it. But when he watched this show, he felt at peace. He longed to have a circle of friends so close they'd do anything for each other. But that wasn't possible in this world.

Being the 15 year old son of the engineering head of the Central Powers had ensured that Clive had received the better end of the deal. He didn't suffer from poverty, hunger or the fear of death. No. He lived in a huge mansion in the region what was once called Canada. The northern region of Western Earth had gained the better half of the economical development, while the rest of the world suffered from stock market drops.

Clive had a clean house, a clean room, clean clothes and most important of all, food to eat. He didn't complain. But he was still unhappy with what they were learning at school.

The teachers made sure to teach the students the greatness of the Powers and how everyone was all merry to go and stuff. But he knew that wasn't the case. His mom and dad had raised him with teachings far more important than the crap he was learning at school. He knew the Central Powers were wrong. He knew the people weren't happy. He knew only those who kept their heads down and worked for them were getting all the resources. He knew that the outside world was in shambles. But, he was only a boy. His thoughts were merely his thoughts. He didn't have the power or the ability to make people realise that what they were doing is wrong.

Clive was a scrawny kid. It was his own doing though. Clive never ate food more than necessary. He couldn't handle the guilt of knowing that he had food far more than required while thousands out there craved for just enough to not die. So he had decided that he would never take advantage of his dad's post.

The doorbell rang and Clive startled out of his stupor. He ran over to the door and grinned once he saw who it was.

It was his friend, Phoenix.

"Are you ready to go?", Phoenix was smirking.

"You bet."

Phoenix and Clive were headed over to his house. Clive and Phoenix lived in one of the richer sections which were only littered with huge mansions. Clive's was the third one from the left and Phoenix lived in the last house a few blocks further from Restons.

"So what'd you find this time?", Clive asked his friend.

Phoenix owned a library. Though no one knew about this apart from Clive. Even his parents didn't know. That's because it was illegal. Books of the past had become off limits to the citizens. The Powers wanted to wipe off the 'stain' of what they believed to be was a stupid mistake of their ancestors. They signed off books. They introduced electronic books. It had disgusted Phoenix. So he had rebelled. But in his own way. He'd used up all his savings to purchase the books before they'd been shipped off to be sunken in the sea.

Now, years later, Phoenix's collection was so huge that he had to shift his library down to the basement. His parents never visited that area. So he was safe. When he'd told Clive about it, he had freaked out. Clive had almost gone to tell his dad about this. But Phoenix can be very persuasive. And they were best friends. So he had kept his friends secret. Besides, he loved it down there. The smell of books was new to his generation. They would never be able to feel 'normal' with books. For them, it'll forever be something strange.

"Oh! You won't believe it! I found history books this time! You don't wanna know how though." Phoenix always had a glow on his face when he spoke about his recent acquires.

Clive smiled. He really was lucky. He had good parents, a decent place to live and the best friend he could hope for. All that was left was a girl.

He sighed in despair. Clive was a hopeless romantic. He'd always longed for the girl of his dreams. It wasn't that there weren't any girls in his class. There wasn't any right girl in his class. You couldn't just up and date anyone. The person's gotta be right. And he knew he'd find that person.

They had finally reached Phoenix's place. It was a humble place painted a light green colour. They padded up the steps and entered.

The two made their way downstairs and Phoenix entered the 5 digit code into the security scanner next to the door. Even Clive had no clue what it was nor did he ever ask Phoenix. He knew he'd never reveal that.

He heard the familiar ding and the door hissed open with a slight groan.

He was watching Phoenix closely. His expression was lighting up more and more. A drunk smile was plastered on his face as he entered and held the door open for Clive.

The basement was perhaps the largest room in their house. Yet it was still small for the treasures it withheld from the world. The walls were covered with shelves upon shelves filled with books of all shapes and sizes. It was beautiful.

Right in the centre atop a giant oak table sat a pile of fat books bounded in old ancient leather.

He slowly walked over to the table and picked a book up.

Phoenix was about to protest but Clive interrupted. "Relax, I'm not gonna tear it."

He tentatively touched the book and was about to open it but Phoenix strode forward and plucked it away from his hands.

"Wha-" he was cut off mid sentence as he saw a shadow move across beside a bookcase situated farther away.

"Phoenix. Who is that?", his voice was quivering.

His expression had transformed completely. Phoenix looked shattered with guilt.

"I'm so so sorry Clive. You have to trust me about the fact that this is the right thing." he whispered.

He seemed to be convincing himself more than Clive himself.

The shadow took on a solid form and a girl of about their age with dark brown hair and black eyes stepped out into the light.

She nodded towards Phoenix, whose expression had changed to something he'd never seen on his friend before.

The girl jerked her head towards Clive and addressed Phoenix. "Is that him?"

"Of course that's him.", he snapped, looking annoyed.

She gave him a serene smile. The girl had dimples. They made her look a little less evil and a little more human.

Clive gulped and turned to his friend. But he wasn't looking at him. His eyes were fixed on the books on the table.

The girl was still smiling as Phoenix walked towards Clive.

"I'm Vani by the way. It's a great pleasure to meet you."

And with that, Phoenix whipped out a cloth from his pocket and shoved it under Clive's nose. His last image before blacking out was that of Phoenix walking towards a still smiling Vani.

***