Grasp The Stars

Chapter Seven

Fairbanks, Alaska

Mark

~Earlier that day~

Gray-brown snow fell from the sky, coating the ground in deadly ice. It wouldn't melt now, it was too late into the winter season, and last week there hadn't been any snow at all. And yesterday was the last day I'd ever be here. Probably. Not that I'd miss this place that much anyway, but I didn't want to leave either. "Why're you up so early?" I turned away from the window. "No reason." I lied. My brother probably wouldn't even notice I'm missing when I don't come home for dinner tonight. He went to work at a gas station for a few hours before meeting with the Fairbanks town council. Ever since the Third War, the council had been reduced to a few people who cared enough to discuss how to keep this town from deteriorating. And, he'd be leaving any minute. Which meant that I'd have the house to myself for an hour before I went to "school." And that was that.                                                                                            ###

It had been seven hours since I was at home. So much had already happened. First, I'd been thrown into a plane for two hours, then shoved into a room along with people I didn't know. And, worse yet, this kid named Leo kept bugging me about my name and where I was from. After hours of waiting, a person, clearly from the military, walked in and motioned for us to follow her. As the group of us followed her down the hall, she spoke.

"The twelve of you have been chosen for a classified program, of which will be explained." She paused, swiping an ID card across a scanner, pushing the door open, and continuing. "First, communication with family is strictly prohibited, and any form of disobeying is punishable." She paused again to open another door, and I continued to wonder how many other things were punishable. "Second, this operation relates to an experiment that has not been tested, and there is a fair chance that some, or all of you will not surviv-" 

"Oh, shut up, Marie." A voice from around the corner responded. "You're going to scare those kids into killing themselves." A second woman rounded the corner. She looked a lot older than "Marie," who appeared to be in her forties...maybe. This woman seemed to be in her sixties, but looks are always deceiving. "We've tested this, yes, but this is the most important test." The older woman smiled. "I'm Eliza Wolf, and I'll be explaining the rest." She smiled, but I could tell she was threatening Marie, who quickly scampered off. "Anyway, we discovered the existence of a looping timeline. Meaning," She waved her hand and a screen lit up. "That we can prevent all of this from happening." And, there it was, the raw footage of the nuclear bombs falling on cities, videos were taken by people, and from the ISS before its crew perished of malnourishment. I heard a few people gasp behind me, and others just stared. Images flashed over the screen, and different videos played, featuring the glow of the explosions reaching out over New York, Washington, Tokyo, Moscow, the entirety of China, New Delhi, Berlin, London, the list could go on forever. Sure, We'd learned about these cities, but seeing how peaceful they looked seconds before their demise, made my breath catch in my throat. Suddenly, I was glad that I was living years after the bombings stopped. People died in pain. And Wolf's words came back to me: "We can prevent all of this from happening." 

A/N-Sorry for late updates!!! I've been really busy with school, and, again, finals. But, I'll have chapter nine by the end of next weekend. I'll start updating more after school ends, maybe the last week since we have a lot of half-days then. 

Have a nice day/night!

--Laura S.