In Another World

CHAPTER 1

Province 7 ; Austrium 

Earth, Solar System #19

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24 HOURS EARLIER

Stephen slaps my hand right as I'm about to grab the remote.

"What do you think you're doing? I told you to leave it alone. The more you think about it and watch news about it, the more you're gonna worry, Em."

I jab my cereal with my spoon. The table shivers. Of course I have to worry, Stephen. Why aren't you worrying? The Unknown's nuclear bombs and disease and robotic killing machines don't phase you enough?

I don't say that to his face. I know he's afraid and nervous, even more so than me. He doesn't like showing it. No one would, in front of a girl they're trying to impress. But how badly I want to tell him, "You don't need to be macho man all the time."

I just keep picking on my stale, dry cereal until all of it is crushed into crumbs at the bottom of the spoiled milk.

"We're going to have to go for another grocery run soon. All the stores 50 miles from here are out of everything, though. You know that. Picking on your food instead of eating it won't help. You're wasting whatever your family can have, and increasing chances of your own hunger," Stephen states, pretending like I don't already know. He leaves the table from beside me and puts his empty bowl into the overflowing sink.

Stephen and I have my house to ourselves today. That is, until my boyfriend Theo comes home in a little bit. He's out on a supply loot with my mom. Dad is about to take off to Province 3 in a few minutes.

To be honest, I never really know where he goes anymore. Sometimes it's to other government facilities in different provinces, getting to know what they know to help our own government in Austrium. A spy, but he only has good intentions.

Other times it's to remote areas, trying to find any signs of damage from the Unknown. He doesn't tell Mom and I exact locations.

However, this time, he did.

We were sitting at the table two nights ago at dinnertime. He had just come back from another trip that day.

"There's something I need to tell you all."

He cleared his throat and wiped his mouth with a napkin. Not that there was anything to wipe from his mouth. All we had for dinner that night was dry beans and half-cooked rice.

"I'm going to be going to Province 3 in a couple of days. North Ameridus Republic."

I felt my heart drop to my stomach. Both my mom and I inhaled sharply. Theo's fork fell out of his hand. The words that we already knew didn't need to be said. Province 3 was the top location of the dangers. The Unknown had their first bombs dropped there. The spread of Blastovesia had started there. The KillBots were born there. To say the least, the destruction of Earth originated there.

Which means that what my father was telling us that night, loudly and proudly, being the noble and honorable man he's known for being, was that he was going directly to the most menacing place on the Earth.

<<<>>>

It happened around a year ago. Most of the nation had already died before they knew what was actually happening. People were killed in their sleep (by what we now know as the KillBots, which were made by the Unknown as the first death present given to us). Some had what they thought were fevers, which then turned out to be an extremely contagious disease everyone calls Blastovesia, where bacteria that the Unknown grew eats away some parts of your body, leaving deep holes, ugly bruises, and huge scars that are all inflammable and explosive when touched by fire or the Unknown's bombs. The pain of the process hurts enough- it was much more likely for a person to die from getting eaten away than the bombs itself. The bombs that were dropped triggered the explosions of those with Blastovesia, though, along with the deaths of many more people. The other provinces found out about it a few days later, since the Unknown cut off all the electricity from Province 3 before they started the killings. By now, the only people remaining in Province 3 are those who couldn't pass the evacuation test.