Cosmic

Before

"Not enough." I say and she rolls her eyes.

"Ella, I apologize for being such a bitch and for taking away your chips. You are the best sister anyone could ever have."

"Fine. Come on and tell me how we're going to switch places." I open the door for her and she looks at my room in disgust. She bites her tongue though and just steps precariously over the garbage. She sits on the edge of my bed, eyeing the books and papers scattered over my desk. I sit next to her and begin discusisng our plan.

..................................

"Quit being such a baby and get in the damn bin already! And you wonder why you failed Guardian training!" Zennebelle's face burns and her knuckles clench.

"But it's gross..." I mumble as I carefully clamber into the bin. I lose my footing and nearly fall but I catch myself before I hit the ground. A few minutes after I'm standing waist deep in trash, Zennebelle tosses her clothes in. I catch them and hold them above my head so they can be clean when I get out.

"Ella, I'll be back in a few. I'll go sign in and knock on the bin when the coast is clear."

Sometime later, something runs over my boot. It causes me to stumble back and bang my head against the lid of the waste bin. My sister's uniform tumbles from hands.

"Ow." I mumble as I rub my head. I find my phone in my pocket and switch to the flashlight function. I find her uniform laying next to an empty beer can. When I pull the uniform from the garbage, I find it soiled. "Dang it!" Sighing, I begin to change into the uniform. I might as well not get my regular clothes dirty.

I recieve a knock on the lid a few minutes later and by the time I climb out, Zennebelle is gone. I place my regular clothes behind the dumpster and hurry through the simulated wind. She left the back door unlocked for me and I ignore the scanner on the wall. It doesn't stop me. I run through the halls, knowing that I was going to be late for Zennebelle's shift.

I pull up my pants, holding them to my waist. The jacket sleeves reach past my fingers and I yank them up as I breeze past other Guardians. I keep my head down, trying to keep attention away from the fact I don't have my sister's star tattoo on my neck, a symbol all Guardians have tattooed on their necks.

I reach my sister's station, opening the door to the office she shared with three other Guardians. I keep my face down as I equip the gun belt from her drawer. The boy who's stationed next to her gives me an odd look but says nothing. I still feel his eyes on me as I tie up Zennebelle's boots whcich are a size too large. We're the only two left in the prep room and I hurry to finish doing up her extensive amount of weapons. I scurry out of the prep room to avoid the boy's stares. Moving down the hall, I find the locker room. I make a mental note to thank my teacher for taking us on a field trip here before I got kicked out. The white tiles in the floor sqeak as I step into the abandoned girl's locker room. I find a locker with Zennebelle's name on it and slip on her solar mask. The mask distorts the colors in the room since the mask is supposed to protect my eyes from the solar flares.

Walking from the locker room, I wander towards the outside doors. A fluttery feeling fills my stomach. Knowing I'd actually get to go outside to the sun made this whole thing worth it.

I haven't been outside in over seven years. When I was eight, I had been shipped over from Earth to Aleskon, this tiny imitation Earth. My parents had sent me to join Zennebelle who was already three years into the Guardian program and at the top of her class. They expected the same results from me. I failed over and over again, only able to stay on this mini planet because of Zennebelle's status.

Taking a deep breath, I push open the doors and turn on my oxygen mask. It takes a second for the oxygen to kick in, so I'm left gasping for air. After it kicks in, I blink. The sun is staring me right in the face. I'm thankful for these masks because without it, someone would've spotted me right away. I swear the oxygen is sucked out of my mask because I'm left breathless. The sun's orange rays shoot out like angry goddesses. The stars bow down to them in their supreme greatness.

I'm still marveling at the sun's beauty when someone bumps into me. Seth, Zennebelle's best friend.

"Hey Belle! What's...what the hell is that smell?" He sniffs the air, probably smelling the foul odor from the trash incident.

"Uh...nothing. I don't know. I mean...I don't know." I answer, sounding nothing like Zennebelle.

"Okay..." He notices the difference but doesn't say anything. "Aren't you supposed to be at the base? I'm taking over your sun station today remember?"

"Oh! That's right!" I respond, not knowing if what he is saying is true. "Yeah. I just forgot." I mentally smack my brain for sounding too much like myself. Zennebelle doesn't forget things, I do.

I begin to walk away from Seth, the hard, man made ground crunching beneath my feet. He says something to me but I'm too far away from him to make out what he says.

Getting back through the building itself was another challenge. After turning down the wrong halls four times, I finally make it to where the station Guardians are posted, half an hour late for Zennebelle's shift. I slide in to her abandoned booth, hoping nobody noticed my absence. I take off my mask and look around at the other stations. I can't figure out my job! Finally, as people stream in and out of the base, I finally understand what I'm supposed to do. Stop people, ask them for credentials and a retina scan, and let them pass if they seem real enough. I do this for hours on end, hoping I look official enough as I press random buttons on my tablet.

No one said anything about my absence, I discovered about two hours into my shift, because a bunch of new recruits were coming through and they didn't have enough time to worry about me. What a stroke of luck.

At the end of my shift, just as my feet begin to ache, a man in sunglasses approaches my station. I roll my eyes, looking at the clock. "Take off your glasses please. Look into the scanner." I repeat this phrase for these thousandth time and he complies. A notification pops up on my tablet, but too tired to care, I push it away. "Credentials please." I barely glance at the papers he hands me and I let him through.

I exit my station just as the next shift approaches. He nods to me and I nod back. He gives me a funny look but goes back to fixing a pin on his uniform. I head to the direction of the bathrooms when I hear an alarm. The lights up above dim and flash.

"Code Yellow! I repeat, Code Yellow!" A voice says from above. People begin running and shouting, pulling out their weapons. I stand there trying to figure out what code yellow meant when I see the man from earlier, the one that popped up on my tablet, running. The Guardians around me begin shooting at him, taking cover behind potted plants and statues. A bullet hits the man and knocks him straight to the floor, dead. The firing stops. I begin to step near him, curious as to what just happened when I catch a glimpse of his purple eyes. That's when I remember what Code Yellow means. Crap.