Wonder JenLisa AU

Chapter 2 ✓

Up above the world so high.

And that was when we really started looking up towards the stars. That was when people started to realize that our time here really is coming to an end, and that if we don't get out, the world will die, and we would die right with it. Some people might call it a noble way to go but most people just wanted out, nobility go screw itself in the backseat.

So, the World Council came up with a plan, a desperate, crazy plan, but a plan nonetheless--send 42 ships off into space, towards the known civilizations in our galaxy and hope against hope and against hope that some of them make it. Of course, there are safer civilizations, the ones that people have made contact with, weak as the radio signals were, strange as the messages were, long as it took to decode, but contact was made. And, given the significantly lowered population of the world, it wouldn't be a far shot from splitting what remained of the world into 42 different ships and sending them off. And that's exactly what happened.

Only, it's more complicated than that. It's always more complicated than that. How do you decide who gets to go first? Who gets to go to the "safer" civilizations, and who gets sent on a joyride towards the edge of our galaxy without knowing if the ship will ever reach the civilization we've never made contact with?

Rewind 20 thousand years, give or take a century or so and a ship named the Titanic sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

And, while history doesn't repeat but it sure as hell does rhyme.

The rich and influential go first, go to the safest. The lesser fortunate go last. So it's been for all of humanity, and so it shall be till the end of the world's days. Literally. Oh the beauties of social hierarchy.

A ship goes out about every half year or so, because that's how long it takes to recharge the power plant with enough energy to launch a ship into space far enough for it to reach wherever it needs to go; the second to last ship left about six months ago.

"Three points! We're ahead by three points!" Jennie was shaking Lisa by the shoulders. They're both jumping up and down on the sofa. It creaks and squeaks under their weight but it holds.

"Five more minutes and we'll end first quarter with a three point lead!" Lisa shouts back, and sure enough, five minutes later, the pair of them are tumbling off the sofa, laughing and shouting. It's the first time in two whole centuries that anyone other than Russia's gotten the World Championship.

"There's a party going on at Jisoo's tonight," Lisa says as the game breaks for commercials. They're playing old reruns of ads for outdated things--teleporters, hovercrafts, etc.

"There's always a party at Jisoo's." Jennie is rummaging around the kitchen for more snacks and comes up empty. "We need to do some shopping."

Lisa snorts. "With what cash?"

Jennie rolls her eyes. "Who needs that when you've got the five finger discount?"

Lisa heaves a sigh. Jennie pauses in her last sweep of the kitchen and eyes Lisa.

"Oh, c'mon, it's not like we haven't been doing this for years. Thought you would have gotten used to it by now."

Lisa makes a noncommittal noise and slumps back into the sofa, "Call me old-fashioned but, I dunno, stealing just doesn't sit right with me."

"Do we have any other choice?" Jennie makes her way back over to the sofa and leans her arms on the back, peering down at Lisa. Her eyes are alight with something a little bit dangerous, a little bit devilish.

"Suppose not..." Lisa glances at her and right then, Jennie drops an apple on her face.

"Ow! Shit--! That really--hey, where'd you get an apple from?" Lisa scrambles up, rubbing at her nose, the apple in her hand, hard and smooth and shiny.

"Guy down the street used to own an orchard--I've been taking care of a few things in there at night, you know the trees that are close enough to pull that gamma tarp over? And you said you missed fruits and stuff, so... yeah." She trails off at the end, scrunching her nose and scuffing her feet against the floor.

"How'd you learn how to garden?" Lisa asks, eyebrows in danger of disappearing into her hairline, even as she takes a large bite of the apple and almost groans out in satisfaction. It's sweet, and crunchy, and right now, it's just about the last good thing left on this whole damn Earth, except for Jennie of course.

Jennie waves a hand and jerks her head, motioning for Lisa to follow. They make their way through the long hallway of the abandoned house, down to the door leading to the basement. For the most part, they haven't been in there yet--it's only been a couple of weeks since they've moved in and stretching tarp over literally every inch of the roof is a tedious task, but completely necessary for ancient houses like these.

The basement is damp and dark. Jennie clicks on her pocket fuse and the room lights up with a soft, blue glow.

"Whoa..." Lisa's eyes go wide.

"Right?" Jennie says, grinning as she lifts the fuse higher to cast the light about. The basement is chalk full of books. Encased in Plexiglas and sealed tight into boxes of transparent alloy. Books, like the ones they've only seen in museums and in holographic projectors (back when they still snuck around into public schools for lessons). Hundreds upon hundreds of books, their titles in stacked letters, some of them recognizable, others in languages long lost to the ravages of time and the ruthless pace of change.

"This one here, is on gardening. I found it the other night when you woke me up from snoring too loudly," Jennie says, bending down to push open the lid of a Plexiglas's case, pulling out a tattered volume with a bright yellow and black striped cover--Gardening for Dummies.

"Dummies?" Lisa reads, smirking, but Jennie makes to jab her in the side and she lowers her eyes back to the book. The pages smell like history, proper history, and stories. So, so many stories.

"Right here's the chapter on apple trees, and then over here... there are these fruits call 'cherries' before The First Wave. Y'know."

"They look yummy."

"Sure do," Jennie says as she flips to another page, the pair of them settling down on the dust-covered basement floor, a pocket fuse between the two of them, huddled over the pages of a book that holds the stories of people from thousands of years ago.

They miss the entire football game and Jisoo's party but neither of them can remember to care anymore.