HOME BUT NOT HOME

Chapter 13 - Home but Not Home

Chapter 13 – Home but Not Home

Our new home, Vertigo Town
Arlington County, VA
Wednesday, April 29, 2076
20:26 EST GMT-5

We spent a good deal checking out the place. It wasn't anything like our home back in 2034, prior to the meteor landing. We missed a lot of things in the last four decades, such as colonization of the Moon and Mars, the rise of job automation and severe climate change, which caused sea levels to rise a good twenty-four feet. I never mentioned this, but I was born in Houston, Texas; while Aurora and Ranger both were born in Ashburn, Virginia. I'm sure by now even Houston is starting to submerge at least six feet, if not more. The only bright side of this Armageddon is, now the beach, which is either Freeport Beach in south Texas, near Corpus Christi, or Galveston Beach is now five miles closer to Houston, literally.

We both got changed into casual clothes and gave our military fatigues to the household robots to wash for us. I then came to notice Aurora was feeling tense, she went into the living room, to learn on the TV. Which was a big holographic OLED wall display, about eighty inches. Pretty much all the TV was Internet-based, and even the local news was in streaming apps. Of course, from what I understood, movie theaters still existed in 2076, but mainly in the form of three-dimensional and high-resolution holograms on the walls, with the same picture and sound quality from sixty years ago. I then sat down next to my girlfriend.

"You okay Julia?" I asked my love.

"I'm good, Austin." Aurora said, as she proceeded to confide in me. "It's just I don't feel at home, anymore. I mean I know this is our home now. But it feel like I'm home but not home."

"I get what you feel, I miss everything back then, and our family and friends. Now everyone is either dead, aged, or perhaps also had hibernated with us." I assured her. "But whatever happened, was for the best. I mean, we'd be dead, or mutated by that cursed asteroid."

"For what it's worth, I'm happy we're still together, even after this apocalypse." Aurora said.

"I mean, I've always told myself I won't let you go, until death, and ever after that." I said, while snuggling in with her.

"Care for some music?" I.V.A.N.A spoke up, apparently being aware of what was going on.

"Sure, I'd say some old Ed Sheeran from when I grew up." I told my AI assistant. "Are you okay with that, love?"

"I most certainly am!" said Aurora. "I've not listened to him in forty-two years, although I was in that cryosleep chamber."

The music then began. It felt good, then I got up and got Aurora up. We began to waltz to the music. It was a blissful night, and we both kissed as the music played. Aurora kissed back and put her arms around mine. I.V.A.N.A lit the mood, by changing our smart bulbs into switching through random colors like it was a disco ball.