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Friday, October 5, 2018

"New World, New Beginnings" by Daniel R.



My name is Tony Rogers and I am 29 years old. I live in the state of Calivada, a state which was once two different states (California and Nevada) merged primarily due to loss of major cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas due to natural disasters and loss of land due to rising waters. The year is 2126 and the Earth has a population of 14 billion people. It is definitely not the beautiful blue planet it has looked for millions and billions of years. So much crime, so much pollution, etc., it is very sad for me to be seeing all this in my lifetime. People have stopped working to fix problems and just leave them as is. When walking from work to my little apartment in Fresno which is the biggest city in Calivada, I would see neon streets, flying vehicles and many people. There was hardly any trees. Many people are wearing masks due to illnesses. People would still do entertaining things like watch sports at a bar and get drunk, ride flying bikes, or even take tours of abandoned cities like Las Vegas and learn the history of that city. That was not the only abandoned city of course. I would often just follow my daily schedule which is Wake up, brush my teeth, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, grab fruits and vegetables from the apartment buildings little farm, eat dinner, brush my teeth and go to bed. During my freetime, I like to watch movies such as Avengers: Infinity War and read
books like The Hunger Games which are obviously considered antique since they are over 100 years old. 
  Many people have fled to other worlds in the Solar System including the Moon, Mars, and even some of the moons of Jupiter. Many Earth-like planets have been discovered outside the Solar System. These discoveries began in the late 2020’s. Today, many people have also fled to these new planets in the hopes of creating a new life. One of the most popular planets is a place called Polyphemus which orbits a gas giant like Jupiter or Saturn. I have promised myself never to leave Earth. When I was a kid in school, I have dreamed of making the world a better place which many others called unrealistic especially in the 22nd century. I eventually gave up on that dream and then at age 21, I decided to build robots at a industrial factory for a living. 

One day became a day of shock and fear. On the morning of April 27, 2126, the news reported that one of the colonized planets called Terminus has been attacked by a series of spaceships. Earth and other colonized planets in the Solar System and beyond soon lost communication with Terminus. Weeks pass by with no updates on the situation. One day the same spaceship has eventually made its way to Earth since the aliens stole the coordinates of Earth from Terminus. There is mass hysteria all around the world. The Spaceship eventually makes it way to the Moon’s orbit and freezes at on 5,000 miles away from the surface of the Earth. The militaries of the world try to communicate with the spaceship and there is no response. I called my brother Chris who lives on a floating city in the Atlantic ocean near an abandoned New York City. He says he is ok and is also keeping an update on the situation. Suddenly a big green blast appears from the spaceship and destroys all satellites. Soon afterwards smaller spaceships enter the atmosphere and hover over big cities including Fresno.

The spaceship however does not hover over my neighborhood. For about half an hour nothing happens, which gives us time to evacuate. As soon as I make it to the suburbs of the city, alien robots start jumping from the spaceship and start the invasion. Fortunately, Some radio signals are still working. Me and a group of other evacuees hear that many people are headed Las Vegas. It is considered to be safe since there is no power. I try to contact my brother but the cell phones still don’t work. Me and a group of other people take shelter in Las Vegas in the abandoned hotels and resorts. We managed to carry a food supply large enough for the whole group which was about 20 people. Weeks pass by where I don’t hear from Chris and his family Until one day, I get word from him that he has made his way to New Chicago which as not been attacked yet. The military attacks on the aliens has so far proven unsuccessful. When all hope was lost for stranded humans on Earth including me, a new army of spaceships arrived on Earth to fight the aliens that are attacking us. The conflict takes place in space. The battle is brutal but is quick. When the war between the two alien species is over. People all over the world survived The friendly aliens start assisting humans in the cleanup. They speak in many universal languages including English. The peaceful aliens reveal that they evacuated Terminus before the bad aliens arrived. They have already helped rebuild the colonies there. Other planets like Polyphemus and Mars were not attacked. The aliens reveal that their enemy invaded Earth for organisms. Soon afterwards I hear from my brother and his family that he is ok. I was so relieved to hear that. Within the next few years the friendly aliens have helped make Earth blue, green, and brown again. They have also helped reverse global warming. Antarctica and Greenland are one again covered in ice. Many animals and plants are brought back from
extinction. Many humans now live in spaceships. Earth is beautiful again. Me and my family can now enjoy the New World.

14 comments:

  1. I loved this story, my favorite part is how you mentioned “The Hunger Games.” I also really liked how you included real world problems such as global warming in your story because I feel that it adds more meaning and gets the reader thinking about something important that does not seem like a key factor in the story.

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  2. Daniel your story was amazing and interesting. I like how the setting was placed 108 years into the future. Another good point was that you used a character and made him tell the story in his perspective. In doing this it gave it that feel as if you were there with in him. It had a good story line and it had very descriptive details with in the timeline. I also find it ironic that in the story we populate other earths and moons but in reality we have nor populated our moon or other earths. That was the cool part. Good job on the story.

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  3. I loved this story, my favorite part is how you mentioned “The Hunger Games.” I also really liked how you included real world problems such as global warming in your story because I feel that it adds more meaning and gets the reader thinking about something important that does not seem like a key factor in the story. - Matthew Ulloa (P.4)

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  4. I like that you interpreted the future as dystopian rather than utopian and the entire Earth has decayed greatly. Also you managed to combine the events of one century into a short story that contains not only conflict and a resolution, but enough contextual detail so the reader is not lost when reading the story. Then you ended it on a positive note that the future will be better despite the current interstellar war that occurred only years before. This makes for a delightful flash fiction that begins with a hopeless society and ends with hope for a better future.

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  5. I love the idea of a post-apocalyptic future Earth. The way that humanity has been described to become so desperate at this point that they have to expand elsewhere was incredible! I also like how the people realized how they have tainted the Earth with their influence and have brought it to its natural beauty ad want to keep it that way.

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  6. Great story! I loved how you depicted the future as both beautiful and dreadful. With the thought of flying cars to mass pollution and extinct animals. I love the conflict and resolution to the story, it is a very fun and create piece. The idea that the future is going to be bad makes us want to do better to prove those predictions wrong.

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  7. Gotta say that I really enjoyed the fact that you got creative and decided to use the future to portray a space war. You gave a good amount of detail to keep me hooked on what the story was portraying and I loved the fact that you gave the main character a great amount of detail. I really liked your story I've always been interested in space and future stories like this.

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  8. I love the story, especially the background information leading up to the actual story. The idea that Earth will be ruined by humans and nature creates a post-apocalyptic theme that is commonly used to present an urgent situation to readers. Even when humanity seems to be parting further and further away from one another and Earth isn't the best place to have civilization, you were able to have a happy ending that brings a glimmer of hope in the worst scenarios. Again, I love this piece.

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  9. Amazing story! I was so intrigued throughout the whole thing. I appreciate how you are bringing light to the fact how the world may turn out if we don't take care of our current world issues. I also like how you implied that human tend to run away from their problems and divide instead of working together which is very prevalent in this day and age. Your use of imagery really made me feel like I was in that time period and I could easily picture the occasion. I really believe that talking about the future is an effective way to encourage human kind to change since it is in our hands. Thank you for this wonderful piece Daniel!

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  10. I liked how you set the time of your story to the future yet the main character can relate to many people today. Also I liked how well you described the situation and how people were on other planets and in spaceships. It really made it seem like that this is the current situation. Lastly I found the creativity you used with the place names very good. Names like Calivada and new Chicago make the old places we know seem so much different. Again this is a very creative and outstanding piece.

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  11. Daniel, I found this futuristic creative story to be incredibly intriguing and well thought-out. I was especially fond of your creation of new names for things in the future such as "Calivada" and the logical reasoning behind them. I enjoyed your outlook towards the end of the piece, where the speaker describes a different, more positive outlook on the future, despite the mistakes of mankind in the past, as it is very compelling and motivating to me to not lose hope, but instead adapt. You should continue to write more creative stories like this, I'm hooked!

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  12. I loved your story, I thought it was very fun and creative. But at the same time eye opening to the fact that problems such as mass pollution and crime could bring our world to an all time low. The detail and imagination was very appealing to me, I loved your reference to present day major cities being deserted and treated like museums. Your story was also very easy to follow because of it's organization, being in chronological order, allowing conflicts to arise and resolutions to fall into place. -Kailee Hinds

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  13. Your post apocalyptic depiction of the future is interesting. With global warming being a legitimate threat to the sustainability of our planet and the constant, unwavering rate of consumption by us humans, it seems like this barren, dried up Earth doesn't seem that too far fetched. Your use of pop culture references throughout this story helped keep the narrative interesting to read, as several of the references listed throughout the story are actually personal favorites of mine.
    Your aptitude of imagining an entirely different world and its details is obviously deep. Going as far as to describe political conflicts between two warring alien races. Along with your depiction of the good alien race's benevolence helps frame your imaginative/creative side. I enjoyed reading your take on a "New World" and hope to see other pieces similar to this one. - Ryan Kang

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  14. Great story! I really enjoyed the fact that you used several pop culture references to help keep the interesting. Your post apocalyptic take on the future of the Earth was very interesting to read about as with our actual rate of consumption, that brownish and dark Earth isn't too far away. Your vivid imagery and skill in world-building made th e story very enjoyable to read and I hope you'll keep up the same trend in future stories. Thanks for the great story! -Ryan Kang

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