REM

Uninhabitable

We were tricked when they declared the world was uninhabitable. 'Safe' houses were built for everyone to endure nuclear war and anything else that might threaten our lives.

Being healthy was important to our survival, yet we completely forgot about our need for food and other necessities. Clean drinking water was pumped through pipes into the buildings we were housed in, but no one ever questioned the cleaning process, or even where the packaged rations were coming from. It wasn't like it would kill us anytime soon, I just happened to be naive like everyone else.

My good friend Clark and I were the only ones who lucked out and got to live in the same building when the tickets were handed out. Everyone else got split up, friends, families, it didn't matter. It was more of a lottery drawing than anything since the lines were split up and tickets for rooms weren't always in order depending on which dispensary you went to.

Settling into the buildings weren't the hard part, it was the curfews and the rules they imposed on us to help keep us safe. We got used to them over the year we spent there, but our lives just weren't the same.

The things that made me wonder the most were the guards and drinking fountain in the middle of the foyer. It was by the main entrance for everyone to see, yet we weren't supposed to drink from it because the water was subjected to the air which could taint it. Funny thing was, the air that could taint it in the building was the same air we were breathing in daily.

One day they called for a random lockdown, which seemed odd since they classified it as a test during the middle of the day. Clark and I were rebels since we were born, so we managed to remain outside as rockets began blasting off from earth.

"What the hell?" I questioned as more and more began coming up out of the ground, causing it to shake. "Do you think those have people on them, or are they nukes?"

Clark looked up into the sky and stated without hesitation, "They're not nukes. They're escape rockets."

I furled my brow as I looked over him. "What?"

He continued to look up into the sky, his short brown hair not being affected by the blowing wind.

"Clark!" I shouted, trying to snap him out of his gaze.

Slowly he looked over at me. "I need to find my daughter."

"Should I find my parents?" I asked.

"I can't tell you what to do Reggie," he replied. "But we got screwed."

"You're tellin' me," I agreed. "What the hell do we do now?" Looking up into the sky I added, "Everyone's leaving."

"Exactly, so I need to find my daughter and get the hell off this rock before we start seeing nukes instead of escape rockets."

Looking over at him I asked, "Where would you even start looking?" Frantic, I peered around us at the empty grounds. "Where would I even find my parents?"

"I don't know," Clark replied. "But if we don't find them, we need to at least find a rocket, or we're going to get left behind. And I don't want to know what will happen then."