Work Text:
Grace is sitting alone in the corridor. Her back is against the wall, on which are hung several posters showing kids taking care of freezing Earth— the posters encourage kids to work together and remain warm. She looks down on her phone and scrolls through message app to see that her messages haven't even been read yet
Teacher:
(Pokes her shoulder) Has your mom answered any of your messages?
Grace:
(Shakes her head) She's probably too focused on the road... she'll be here any moment now, I'm sure!
Teacher:
She's surely taking her time... Pick-up time was scheduled at twelve...(looks at the clock that's close to showing 6:00 PM )
Grace:
(Looks at her bags, the biggest one containing her clothes has many different patches from countries she's been to, and also one from Project Hail Mary)
Teacher:
(Sighs) Are you sure you want to keep sitting on that cold floor?
Grace:
(Nods, now looking at the entrance doors)
Teacher:
I'll make you something hot to drink..
《☆》
I unwrapped a little "goodbye" treat we received after the very last bell. I wasn't hungry then so I saved it for later. It had the shape of a muffin, but for a person born before the astrophage crisis it certainly wasn’t one, at least from the ingredients standpoint. Earth wasn't able to maintain all food sectors— governments spent all their efforts on protecting the most important grains and plants, which loss of would mean starvation for the whole continent.
Slowly but surely the animal sectors started to be downsized— more meats were replaced by the plant-based alternatives, same with animal products. Don't get me wrong, they still exist, but they're difficult to come by. For example, schools are privileged sectors that receive rations of eggs, milk, sometimes even real meat— most of such resources are reserved for the "future of this planet".
But back to the muffin— it looked pale, smelled like vanilla (but there certainly wasn't any inside), it probably had no eggs and no milk... I hope it will at least be sweet.
I bit into it— the texture was... something— but it was sweet, and that's all I needed.
Between all the chewing and swallowing, I kept checking the doors and my phone. I could only hope that mom didn't forget that today was our pick-up date— I know the school sent parents messages about it, I also wrote to her, and I'm sure my teacher is also calling her right now— it certainly wasn’t like her to forget about dates and such.
"Here you go." My teacher came back with a cup of hot tea. It had a raspberry flavor, so it was most probably made by mixing a bit of syrup with water. "I called you mother— but I couldn't even get a signal..."
"Nothing to panic about..." I stirred the tea in the cup. "She has dozens of numbers and phones— you probably just called an inactive one."
"But you can't get a signal either, can't you."
"I didn't try to call her now, just messages... Can we please change the subject? She's on her way and she'll ring the door any moment now."
She sighed. "Okay then— You picked up music classes this year as your extra curriculum, are you having fun?"
"To be fair, I wish I could go to a real music school. It's cool that I can learn a bit here— but I've heard that before astrophage there were schools for all specialties... not just... all purposes, survival bunkers..."
"Is this what you and your friends call this school? A bunker?" She chuckled.
"Isn't it though? I mean... we learn but also we're not really allowed to leave except for a few occasions, but even then we go as a group."
I should have mentioned that schools also began to function differently. It was more of an all purpose facility now— education, as well as ensuring survival. We were allowed to have hobbies and side hustles. However, the message was clear "we can't rebuild the world by strumming a guitar"— too bad, I'm not good at anything besides that... well, maybe except for handcrafiting and such.
I put the now empty cup on the floor.
"It's not my first time with music in general. We had a piano at home, so I nagged mom to play it— I nagged a lot, actually. We sang together as well... I guess it just stuck with me," I shrugged. "Mom had to travel a lot, she still does— the only difference is that now she wants me to be in school..."
Whatever her response was, my mind decided to mute every incoming word. My finger scrolled through the news section on my phone. At first there wasn't anything unusual— a bit of articles warning about an approaching doomsday, some celebrating another scientific breakthrough, and then there was this— mumbling of a maniac claiming that he saw a spaceship fall from the sky. I enjoyed reading those highly insane works about aliens and how astrophage was "a biological weapon sent all over space by a highly advanced civilization" — maybe those takes were astonishingly wrong, but at least they were entertaining.
I scanned through the text quickly— besides maniacal clusters of words, I could spot some very specific details. That guy was clearly very passionate about his little blog and findings — he noted down exact time, when he spotted bright object traveling through the sky. Another hour marked the crash — and another, the arrival of specialized forces, who quickly blocked off the area. I flicked my tongue. "He said that they arrived minutes later— so that means they must have been aware of the situation hours earlier— the radars were already tracking that object before it entered the atmosphere..." I turned off my phone. "Eh... it's just something from NASA."
"Grace?" She snapped her fingers in front of my face. "Are you listening to me? I've said that there are cars waiting outside."
I stood up quickly. "Wait.. did you say cars? As in more than one?"
《☆》
I observed as my teacher made her way outside to check who was hiding inside those three, black SUVs. I didn't stop looking for any signs of a familiar coat and hair— when was the last time she needed to be escorted like this besides for the meetings in various parliaments?
My hands drummed on the shell of my hard suitcase, while my glasses slid off my face again. I was trying my best to see anything in the constantly fogging window.
"What's the point of waiting here?" I unzipped my bag and grabbed a yellow raincoat to put on my already pretty warm sweater. I made sure I didn't forget the beanie as well. "I'll just come back in if they're not here for me..."
《☆》
"Morning." A dark skinned man stepped out of one of the cars followed by two other, similarly dressed people. He had a bit of gray hair, but it was hard to spot if you weren't looking at him from a right angle. He took a look at his watch. "Excuse me. Good evening."
"Good evening," She grabbed his hand into a handshake. "Is Miss Stratt with you?"
He shook his head. "No."
"But—"
He proceeded to open his coat and took out his badge. "Name's Carl. We're from Humanity's Preservation Program, formally known as Petrova's Taskforce. We're here by director's Stratt request."
She shrugged. "I understand— however, I cannot hand out the child to a person who's not the child's parent or legal guardian."
"We assure you, Miss, that Stratt wanted to be here personally." A woman in sunglasses handed my teacher a sealed folder. "Every document signed and stamped — now excuse us, we're on a tight schedule. " She took a look around. "Where's Grace?"
"Here!" I raised my arm as I struggled to get the luggage through the door's frame.
A third man in black walked passed me and grabbed the rest of my things.
Carl smiled. "Someone got bigger again."
I gave him a fist bump. "Was it really that long since our last meeting?"
He shrugged. "A bit." Carl pointed at the opened car door. "Hop on. We're already running late."
《☆》
The view of trees and buildings passing by in the car window is something I was used to since I was little.
Mom took me everywhere with her no matter if it was a private meeting, conference, or even UN debate— there was rarely an option to leave me alone. Well, at that point in time I was too little to have an opinion whether I liked being dragged around the world or not — and all my mom cared about was making sure I was safe.
That's why the whole idea of being sent away to a boarding school was so weird to me at first.
The relationship I had with education and such was certainly a strange one— I feel that it's safe to say that I was "homeschooled" for most of my life. And when I finally happened to be at school, there was a high chance I had to change it. Again... and again, and again— either because mom had to travel and stay on the other side of the world for an unspecified amount of time, or because the weather forecast was far from inviting.
And the world right is... more used to this new climate, and far more prepared to combat problems than it was just after Hail Mary launched.
It's an era of a very fragile, but necessary peace fought for and won by my mother and everyone on the project. Hail Mary was a good enough example that we should continue to fight for the lives of people and our planet and honor those who were sent to their deaths. The choice stood between killing each other and letting the findings return to a dead planet, or working together to ensure survival of the masses— there was nothing to lose choosing that option. Worse that could happen is that we will never hear back from the astronauts, but at least we would have some peace before that happens.
"How's school?" Carl asked from the front seat. He was too busy watching the road to turn his head around.
"Okay...?" I shrugged. "Maybe just a bit boring."
"Hmmm... that's bad. I knew someone who wouldn't be too happy with that answer."
"Why didn't mom come? Why did she send you?" I asked. "I thought we were supposed to go home together for my vacation..."
"Oh, well, she wanted to come," He stopped the car before the lights. "Something happened… she had to reschedule things."
"What did?"
"I'm sure she will tell you herself once you two meet," He made a turn left. "I'm not allowed to tell you myself."
"Uhh, Carl? I think you took a wrong turn..." I leaned over in my seat. "There's no need to take the highway route to get to our home. Not to mention we are going in a completely different direction."
"You're not going home." He said with a calm voice.
"What? Then... where?"
"Airport."