Grasp The Stars

Chapter Five

--Berlin, Germany

--Lori

--2080. 

There was a knock at the door to the dorm. I got up, careful not to wake the other girls I shared the dorm with. Standing in front of me was someone from the North Country military. The one from North America-or, at least, used to be North America. I didn't need to be instructed to know what to do. I walked back to my bed, grabbed the suitcase that sat on the floor next to it, and walked out the door, neither of us saying a word. I could speak English just fine-there was nothing to say. The ride through the city was quiet. Though, I don't think I had the right to call Berlin a city anymore. It was in ruins-as all the large cities within the world were. The hemispheres were greatly divided, so I didn't get why they'd bring people from all over the world to participate in their "experiments." I pushed my glasses further up on my nose and continued to stay silent. The airport was as empty as the rest of the city when we reached it. A single, military-grade jet waited on the runway. It looked ancient. The pilot-I now assumed, led me to the jet, telling me to strap into one of the seats and taking my suitcase to place it somewhere, I presumed. A few minutes later, the jet took off, pressing me into the back of the seat. Eventually, when we reached the correct altitude, the pressure leveled out and I was able to sit forward again. From high up, the entire country looked to be ruined. Though, it wasn't visible for longer than an hour. After that, it was mainly the ocean. I lost track of time after that, staring straight ahead like AI's do. When we landed, the sun was just creeping over the horizon. "Where are we?" I asked, curious to know if my geography lessons would pay off. "An undisclosed location in Utah." The pilot replied simply. I nodded, glancing around at the kilometers of desert stretched out in front of me. There was a large, flat building behind us, and as the pilot led me to the entrance, I noticed men standing atop the building holding guns. Real guns. I thought those were long gone. I continued to wonder how they'd gotten their hands on those as I followed the pilot into the building. It was spacious, the majority of things inside what I'd now recognized to be a bunker, having supplies inside of it. Ahead of us, there was a meeting room. Two people who looked to be around my age sat in chairs, neither saying a word. The pilot opened the door to the meeting room and gave me a brief nod before closing the door and leaving me inside with two strangers. "Where're you from?" The boy asked. He had deep blonde hair and wore a chill expression. His eyes were a greyish hue, yet they almost looked amber-colored from the angle I was standing at. "M-me?"

"Does it look like I'd be asking anyone else?"

 "Oh," I pushed my glasses back up and glanced over at the girl, who, in return, paid no attention to me and continued to mumble something in a language I didn't understand. "Do you know where Berlin...was?" I asked, taking a seat at the table. "You mean you lived in a different part of the world?"

 "Y-yes...?" 

"What the hell would they want with you?"

"I-I don't know."

 "You're probably wondering who we are, no?"I nodded."Name's Leo. The girl over there is Aquamarine, I believe." Suddenly, the door opened and two more kids were ushered inside. Three of us studied the newcomers. They looked just as surprised as we did. Eventually, they took seats around the table. Leo continued asking where they were from. "Oh! And, you!" He pointed at me. "What's your name?"

 "Lori..." Aquamarine scoffed, shaking her head. Her blue hair fit her name almost perfectly. I noticed her staring at another kid with blonde hair, who looked as if he'd been playing in the dirt hours earlier. His name was Luke. Like the rest of us, he didn't want to be there. The girl, Sage, I believe, appeared to have been crying. Her eyes were red and she kept her head down, her brown-pink hair cascading over her shoulders. Everything went silent again until three others entered the room. Once again, Leo began questioning them about where they were from. Instead, I paid attention to how they looked; there's a lot one could learn from how someone looks. The only other girl there, whose name I didn't catch, kept looking over at Leo, then looking away. She played with the collar of her uniform-I could only assume, it was so frayed at the ends that it didn't look very proper. The other two were both boys, again, whose names I didn't know. A few minutes passed, and conversations began to sprout up again, people chatting nervously, or laughing as if they'd been friends forever. Four more joined us over two hours, adding to the conversations. This is going to be the most interesting social event I've ever been to. 

A/N-I'm still working on chapter six, but it should be out by next week, depending on when I have time to post it. AGH I hate the few weeks before the end of school cause all the teachers get really cranky, it's always hot out (our school has terrible air conditioning-as in none), and everyone wants school to be over. ://

Anyway, enjoy your day/night!

--Laura S.