Secrets of the Universe

Chapter One

It was already well past dark when Arlise clocked out and left the diner, calling a short farewell behind her. The neon blue and pink lights washed the parking lot in a pale purple. The only three cars in the parking lot were her boss's Toyota, Jaime's grey Jeep, and the beaten red pickup waiting for her. Arlise pulled her jean jacket tighter, shooting a smile to where she could see Dante behind the wheel, his chin lit up with the artificial light of his phone. He waved back at her as she picked up into a jog. The temperature had been regulated to exactly the national average on June 19th for the past fifty years, so she was looking forward to sliding into the warm car.

As soon as Arlise climbed into the passenger seat, she was engulfed by warmth and the smell of McIntosh Apples. Dante always carried the scent of McIntosh Apples. She shed her jean jacket from over top of her waitressing uniform and threw her bag into the backseat. "Hey," she sighed, leaning across the console to peck Dante on the cheek.

Shifting into drive, Dante smiled and pulled away from the diner. "Hey. How was your shift?"

"Pretty slow. Only a few tables."

Dante hummed. "You tired?"

"Exhausted," Arlise laughed breathlessly.

"You want to just go home tonight?" Dante squinted over at her in concern. "We don't have to meet up with everyone."

"Of course we do. It's Saturday. Tradition!"

"It's not like we haven't been there every other week. They're not going to get mad if we skip one evening."

"In other words," Arlise smirked, leaning over to him with a goading look. Dante groaned, already knowing what was coming next. "The world isn't going to end?"

Dante reached over her lap as she practically contorted with cackles, pulling a broken slab of wood out of his glove compartment, which was kept there for exactly this occasion. "I hate you," he growled after shifting his attention back to the empty suburban roads.

"You are way too superstitious."

"Do not give me that. Fear of the world ending is perfectly rational."

Arlise shrugged, still getting over her giggles. "Well, all the more reason to go tonight. Besides, Digg said it's supposed to be really bright tonight. He's excited."

Dante glanced over at her once more, but the decision was made. He knew how much importance Arlise placed on Digg's excitement, so he turned left off of Broad. Right would have taken them back to their neighborhood. Though he had offered to bring her home, Arlise knew how much Dante loved each Saturday night spent at Headquarters with their friends, how some days it was the only thing keeping him moving through the exhaustion and stress. Hell, it was that for all of them. She loved him all the more for being willing to put that below her sanity on his list of priorities.

They drove the rest of the ay in a comfortable silence. With her head pressed against the window, Arlise watched Colony 27 pass by. It was a smorgasbord of every era and culture she could find in her history textbook. A 1970's style hippie van sat parked beside a 2020 BMW. 27's favorite pop shop, Jerks, nestled in between a Vape shop and a Blockbuster along one of the strip malls. When the colony borders had been set and the Shield sealed off, it was like resurrecting the past. With no new developments in technology, people clung onto relics and antiques of life. The disco scene had reappeared, along with flappers and speakeasies. Thankfully, the oversized belt trend of the 2000s had stayed well and buried.

Of all of them, Mia was the most historically obsessed. She always had her camera out and ready to take pictures of every and all walks of life they came across. She once told Arlise, lying on the floor of her bedroom, that it just might be the key to the secrets of the universe she was photographing. Half asleep, Arlise didn't fully understand what she meant, and she didn't have any more a clue half awake, but if Mia knew, that was enough for Mia.

With approximately one thirtieth of America's population at the time of the Crash crammed into Colony 27, the town itself was pretty congested. The colony only managed to take up the area previously known as the state of New York, with a large metropolitan area in the middle. Arlise had once read that New York used to be renown for its city, but that was long gone. It had disappeared behind steel before Arlise's grandmother was born. 27's city, creatively named City27, slowly dispersed out into miles of suburbs, before finally reaching the Agris, an area dedicated to agriculture that dominated nearly half of the Colony. Arlise lived close enough to the edge of the suburbs that she was able to spend every Saturday night in an open, abandoned field.

Three shadowed figures already waited for them at Headquarters when Dante's truck ambled up through the tall yellow grass. Headquarters was their own little sanctuary, a place invincible to the rest of the world, as if under its own Shield. Out in the middle of the field, the middle of the universe, sat an abandoned train car. That was their sanctuary. That was Headquarters.

It had belonged to Diggory and Arlise first, found one day out on an adventure. Slowly, they brought the other's into the fold. Mia had grown close to Diggory during the Great Ban of 2112. Begrudgingly, Arlise allowed Digg to bring Mia to Headquarters. It was only four weeks later that her twin brother, Peter, showed up at the mouth of the train drenched in rain and tears. No questions asked, Peter became a part of their little group. They never found out what it was that drove him to the field that night, but it didn't matter. It only mattered that he got there.

For a long time it was just the four of them, and they were deliriously happy that way. Then on the third day of freshman year, Dante Morris walked up to Arlise at her locker and asked her to be his girlfriend. They dated for four months before, after a long group discussion culminating in a unanimous vote, she brought him to Headquarters. It was as good as a marriage proposal.

In the following three years, every single Saturday night found the five of them at Headquarters to watch the Sky Show. They were there most weeknights too, but Saturdays were sacred. When Arlise and Dante pulled up that night, Peter, Mia, and Diggory were already waiting for them on the top of the train car.

Arlise climbed out first, the tall grass swallowing her up to the waist. She waded through them to the front of the car, and for a minute the headlights fracturing off the field turned the whole world golden. She was Midas. Dante shut of the car and she was Arlise.

Hand in hand, they approached the metal ladder leading up to the top of the train. Arlise climbed up first, finding herself a seat next to Diggory without hesitation. Since they were five years old, her natural state of being had been Beside Diggory Cabe. She felt Dante slide in beside her, and Diggory passed over a generous amount of the thick blanket he had buried himself in. Mia and Peter were beside him, also wrapped up to stay warm.

"We made it in time," Arlise breathed out.

"Almost got scared you wouldn't," Mia joked.

"It would take an act of godly intervention," Dante shot back.

Instantly, Digg and Arlise replied in tandem, "That's what we're here for."

Snickering, Peter leaned over Mia to ask Dante, "What's on the schedule for tonight?"

Dante was their informant. He always knew the news and the schedule and dutifully passed it along to them. The rest of them just didn't pay enough attention to the scientific things. "The Equator."

Mia groaned. "We just had the Equator like three weeks ago."

"That was during the summer though. This is the winter."

"And?"

"It's different," Dante defended.

"As long as it's bright," Digg breathed out. He looked over at Arlise, giddy. "They said it's going to be bright tonight, Lise."

Giving him a gentle smile, she leaned her head on his shoulder. "I know Digg. I'm sure it will be."

"It's ten," Peter announced, checking his phone.

Five faces turned upwards together as the metal dome above them lit up.