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KA-BOOM!
Another violent explosion shook the fragile surface below them. Everyone dropped to the ground and clung tightly to anything within reach. The fear of being shaken from the air overcoming all other senses. Eventually, the ruinous green clouds settled back into the infected surface from which they erupted. Slowly, everyone got up and went back to work.
“Why does that green cloud keep exploding, Mum?” Wirra asked, leaning over and pointing to the lurking green mist below him.
“Because, sweetheart, as time goes on it becomes more and more powerful, which causes it to explode more often,” she replied, smiling. Wirra’s eyes reflected the green tinge of the ground below, while her own were glassy with tears.
Wirra’s mother remembered the year of 2034, one that brought humans face to face with an unimaginable disaster. It crept up on them like a cunning lion after its prey. Even when scientists warned of the approaching danger, humans ignorantly went about their daily lives in denial. They became used to the higher temperatures, the wilder weather. Politicians ignored the advice from scientists far more intelligent than themselves, promoting industry over the environment. In short, the politicians kept laws the same; pollution kept piling up in the environment around them. Homes were uprooted and families were viciously torn apart. People were not given enough time to prepare themselves for an uncontrollable event that would change their lives forever. For many, this wasn’t long enough. Wirra and his mother only just made it out of the danger.
Scientists in first world countries had made huge replica cities on giant floating platforms. Huge engines worked tirelessly every day to keep the cities in the air, anchored at the core to the earth’s surface. No safety fences were built around the edges; they just didn’t have the time. Instead, Darwin’s theory of evolution worked subconsciously in everyone’s minds: survival of the fittest. If you fell, you died. Simple as that.
Soon after taking to the air, poisonous pollution condemned planet Earth and the living beings left behind, enveloping the surface completely with air the consistency of pea soup. Wirra loved the tales his mum would tell him about the old London days where people walked around in sludgy air which was so much like their own.
The day the floating cities were to be populated was one nobody would ever forget. Large crowds of families had flocked to the floating cities, eager to get their loved ones on-board, something Wirra’s mother remembered all too well. It had been the most terrifying experience of her life. And the most distressing; she had had to leave large numbers of her family and friends behind in her attempt to get herself and Wirra to safety.
Even many of the families who made it to the gates weren’t allowed on. There just simply wasn’t enough space.
As the cities rose from the surface, screams of sheer terror filled the air. Families clung tightly to each other as they soared up into the unknown atmosphere. After floating upwards, the anchors proved their capabilities and slowly everyone began to calm down.
“If we never used bad fuels or smelly gases, would we still be down there?” Wirra asked as he looked over the edge. He wiped away the sheen of sweat on his face, pink-cheeked from the heat.
“Perhaps,” his mother replied, feeling her own sweat glands working overtime to keep her cool.
“Do you think those anchors will hold forever?” Wirra asked as he surveyed the contraption below.
“Well, they have so far,” his mother answered. Wirra was becoming increasingly excited.
“What if we could lower them and—”
“No, Wirra,” his mother interrupted. “We are all staying here where it’s safe.”
Wirra frowned with disappointment and went back to looking at the world below him. He tried to make out shapes in the clouds, like he used to back on the surface. He imagined it to be a venomous snake, slithering its way around the surface and killing everything in its path.
Two months on the floating city seemed to be long enough for people to become familiar with the new way of life and start to move on from the terrifying disaster they had all experienced. Most people had shut the dangerous world below them out of their lives, trying to forget the past. They threw their energy towards keeping the city afloat. Tried to find ways of fixing the problems left behind on the surface. After all, they were still alive and needed to keep going. Billions of people had died in the poisonous gases below, left behind to suffocate in the fumes.
Wirra on the other hand, seemed fascinated by the glowing planet below him. He would spend hours each day lying in the lush green grass, peering over the edge. He never seemed to get bored and always looked as though he was expecting something amazing to happen.
Life on the floating platform wasn’t much different to life on the surface. The adults worked on the engines, powered by solar nuclear technology; the children attended schools. There were no birds and no oceans, but the humans managed with what they had. Water was filtered from the atmosphere, kept in large reservoirs. There were no books, other than instruction manuals to run the engines. Food had been reduced to simple fruit and vegetables, and simple sources of protein, such as chickens, legumes, mushrooms, and insects. Bland, but palatable and sustaining.
“Can we ever go back home, Mum?” Wirra asked with curiosity, his eyes scanning the ruined world below.
“I don’t think so, dear,” his mother replied. “It’s far too dangerous to return.”
“But, what about—”
“No, Wirra,” his mother cut in. “It’s time to move on.”
Earth looked like a spider with millions of legs. Anchors floated out in every direction to support the world’s once-perfect cities. No one could be sure who made it out; travel was restricted to other floating cities on the basis of necessity. Only the leaders could travel, and they revealed nothing to the commoners. The communication engineers were working on re-establishing radio contact. Until that was open for public use, the citizens felt extremely lonely.
As Wirra lay on his belly, he scanned the world below. He was always looking out for something. He was the one who noticed when the lethal green clouds changed swirling direction last month, but it didn’t seem to thrill him. He continued to do the same thing over and over again, like a determined scientist trying to prove a hypothesis.
“Come inside and get some lunch, Wirra, darling,” his mother called from the house. With one last inspection of the polluted world below, Wirra stood up and made his way to the house for something to eat.
He would return to his grassy spot after lunch and continue to monitor the vicious clouds below. He would wait forever, if that’s what it took him to find his little sister who was left behind. Maybe one day he would see her again. Until then, he would keep watching and waiting.