Year E3029

Ocea

"Ocea, where's Thomas?" my dad asked.

"I-I—" Tears swelled as I stammered on what to tell him. "He's—"

With widened eyes, my dad brought his hand to his face and stepped back from me. He spun a few times, tapping his finger to his cheek, and glanced at Thomas's house across the street.

"Dad," I cried to him. "I don't know what happened."

My hands trembled with fear as I watched tears fall on them, splashing into the dry air. "A man—" I paused, looking at my dad. "He did something to Thomas."

"Honey, it will be okay," he said, bringing me into a hug and brushing my hair.

When words leave someone's mouth, they can't take them back. Even if the lie was there to protect me, it was still a lie. Nothing would be okay.

"Beck, we need to get inside and pack," my mom's voice filled my ears while I looked at her through blurry eyes.

"Kitty, do you think?" His eyes told her a story that only she could read, a secret kept from me.

"Yes," she replied, like I wasn't there.

"But—" My dad's eyes looked away from her. "I thought—"

"Maybe someone else took over." She shrugged her shoulders. "We watched them die in front of our eyes, so someone else must have continued."

I brushed the tears from my cheek. "Who?" I asked with a tremble in my voice. "What is going on?"

My mom let out a long sigh, then reached to grab my hands. A loud crash in the distance shook the ground as sirens alarmed in the streets. Smoke from the neighbor's house masked black as a fire lit up the side of it. I wrapped my arms around my torso, frozen.

A familiar loud horn reflected off my house, prompting me to panic. "We need to go inside!" I yelled while the truck from earlier sped toward us.

"The Saviors will unite! The Saviors will save all!" a voice from a birdroid megaphone yelled in rhythm. A teenage safforian with bright blue hair hung from the side of the truck, spurring his words.

I ran for my front door, but my parents did not follow. "What are you doing?" I asked them as they both waved down the truck. "Stop!" I yelled at them, not wanting to trust my parent's judgment.

✧✧✧

A bang on the front door had me out of bed quickly. "Ahhh!" I yelled, jumping to my feet. I looked down to see myself still in my underwear and bra, realizing I hadn't set my alarm for the morning.

"Hold on," my hoarse voice said, walking over to the door.

I swung the door open to see Wyatt standing there. His eyes widened as he looked around, confirming nobody was walking by the door.

"Shit, Ocea," he said, walking in and shutting the door. "Put some damn clothes on."

"I know." I picked up a pair of black jeans and jumped into them.

"You can't answer the door like that. Someone could have been walking by." Wyatt walked over to my bed and sat down.

I grabbed a dirty white shirt from the ground, pulling it over my head. "Good, more people to add to our orgy."

Wyatt glared at me. "Gross," he said, making me scowl at him.

I brought my hand to my heart. "Ouch."

Wyatt leaned over, grabbed an unopened protein bar from the ground, opened it, and stuffed it in his mouth. "That would be like having sex with my sister," he said with his mouth full.

I tilted my head at him. Wyatt was a cute guy, with his sizeable arms and almost zero percent body fat. His brown eyes looked like a cup of coffee, swirling around with a glitter of gold, but he was right. Thinking of him that way seemed wrong. His new bald head was a turnoff to me, but he was still getting hit on by the female species with it.

"Okay, you're right." I looked at myself in the mirror to see army green combat boots with black jeans tucked into them. The white shirt had a hole under my right boob, and the pattern on the white was fading away. I shrugged, looking over at Wyatt in the mirror reflection.

"Is this okay?"

Wyatt raised an eyebrow. "Why do you care?"

My shoulders dropped as I huffed out. Wyatt stood up from the bed, walking over to my desk.

"Here, do this shirt," he said, handing over a black crop top with an old rock and roll band logo. "This one shows off your belly."

I took the shirt, replacing it. I smiled at myself in the mirror and then over at Wyatt.

He smirked. "You always get men rubbernecking when you wear this one."

I laughed. "Thank you for that image."

Wyatt walked over to the door and opened it. "Now, let us see if you can get Thomas to his knee."

I shoved Wyatt into the hall. "Oh, shut up."

Wyatt stumbled into a tall figure with bright blue hair that matched his eyes.

Wyatt laughed once he saw who he bumped. "Sup, waist of air," he said with an attitude toward the worst safforian on this planet.

Meet grade-A douchebag, Fin Cyder. He and his groupies consistently run into us with their attitudes and assholeism. There were four Cyder brothers, Dan being the oldest, William and Ben were next, and twins. The last and worst was Fin. They are all blue safforians and think they own everything they touch. The only Cyder brother that we could stand was Dan. He was older than us and married with a family. So, there was a minuscule interaction at most.

"Did Wyatt just exit Ocea's room?" Fin questioned with a laugh, causing William and Ben to chuckle behind him. "We knew she was a slut but didn't think she would scrape that low."

Wyatt boiled over, shoving Fin against the wall. He grabbed him by the throat, lifting him. "What did you just call her?"

Will and Ben reached for Wyatt when I stepped forward, kicking Will in the balls and dropping him to the ground. I swung my arm around, clothes-lining Ben and then kicking the backside of his knees, having him fall on top of Will. Practice fighting with Stopper had its perks. Most men sizeable over me could take me down, but Stopper taught me to act fast and hit them where the sun didn't shine.

I looked over at Wyatt, grabbing his shoulder. "Let's just go, Wyatt."

Wyatt let Fin go, letting him fall to the ground with his brothers. We walked away until Fin laughed on the floor.

"We should have just let her die with her mom," Fin croaked.

My mom's bright purple eyes flashed in my memories, fading to grey as her last breath left her body. The devil entered my body as I spun around, jumping on Fin. I swung my arms, landing every punch on his precious face.

"OCEA!" Wyatt yelled while placing his hands under my armpits, lifting me off Fin.

My black vision leaked in color, breathing back to realization. I glanced at Fin on the ground, bleeding from his mouth and nose. I laughed while spitting on him.

"Don't you ever talk about my mother again!" I yelled toward him and shoved Wyatt off me, angrily walking away from the three assholes.

I ran, trying to get my mind off the night my mom died. I didn't want to think about it. My breath increased as flashes of memories scanned through my senses. I ran even faster, rounding a corner just to hit hard into another person. My eyes glanced up to see Stopper standing there.

"Stop," I cried out as tears streamed down my face. Stopper's eyes glanced behind me at Wyatt, slowly jogging toward us.

"Out of the way," I heard Dylan's voice as he shoved Stopper to the side and wrapped his arms around me. "Shhh, it's okay, Ocea," he whispered into my ears.

"What happened?" Stopper asked Wyatt.

I heard Wyatt huff out. "Fin said some pretty shithole things about her mom."

"WHAT!?" Stopper yelled. "Where is he?"

I pulled away from Dylan's arms, looking over at Wyatt. He smiled at me and then laughed out toward Stopper. "No, dude, she got him pretty good."

"What?" Dylan asked.

"Yeah, she beat the shit out of him after she brought William and Ben to the ground," Wyatt said, fist-bumping Stop.

"Damn," Dylan let out.

Stopper laughed. "No shit," he said. He waved his hands near his face, acting like he was fighting an invisible person. "I wish I was there to see it."

I shoved Stopper to the side. "Stop it," I said, then brought the end of my shirt up to wipe the tears from my cheeks. "I hate crying in front of you three," I said, making a mean face in embarrassment.

"Nah, in this world, crying is the only thing reasonable right now," Stopper said, wrapping his arm around my shoulder to bring me in with a side hug.

Dylan stepped forward. "Okay, now that we finished our morning drama." He looked over at Wyatt. "Right? Or are we going back to beat the shit out of them again?"

Wyatt gave me a curious look, so I quickly grabbed the tablet from Dylan and turned it on to see Thomas's picture.

"What's the first task?" I asked Dylan.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, you are the lead on this, so you tell us."

"Oh." I looked down at the tablet. "Well, it says he works today to clean up the mess at the store, so—" I looked up at the guys. "I guess we start there."

"Yeah," Wyatt chimed in. "I'll go with Ocea to fix her bike." He pointed at Stopper and Dylan. "You two dig up any dirt you have." He looked at me. "The messier, the better."

I shook my head, looping my arm with Wyatt. "Okay, we will see you guys later," I said toward Dylan and Stopper.

We walked to the sewer door because it was the closest to our destination. Since it was morning and everyone aimed to go to work, we blended in with the crowd along the street. Wyatt walked behind me a couple of people back to make it seem like we weren't together.

When we got closer, I saw my bike in view, causing me to jog up to it. My hand brushed along the seat as I spun around to see Wyatt taking his sweet time to walk up.

"Hey, move your lazy ass faster and fix her!" I yelled, leaning against my motorcycle.

Wyatt laughed, taking his hands out of his pockets to jog up to the bike. "I already see the problem," he said, pointing at a wire. "You must have rocked it loose with your fat ass." He winked at me and then adjusted the wire under the seat. He swung his leg around, starting up the bike. Right away, smoke filled the air.

I waved my arms around, coughing. "That doesn't seem fixed," I laughed.

"Shit," he said, scrunching his eyebrows together. "Well, I'll take it back to the bunker." He pulled a helmet on. "I'll meet up with you later," he said, then drove off with smoke trailing behind him.

I jogged to the alleyway, climbing myself up on the rooftop. Slowly, I walked to the hole in the middle of the ceiling, listening to the voices inside. I could pinpoint Thomas' voice effortlessly as he talked with a man.

"I wasn't in the aisle when the bomb went off," Thomas said, leaving me out of what happened.

"Sir, this establishment is owned by the Men Of Suits, so if you have anything new that comes up, please call." The man's voice was deep with authority.

"What's not owned by the Men Of Suits?" Thomas asked with an attitude.

"Sir, don't give me any—" The man said, but Thomas interrupted him.

"Yeah, yeah, call if something comes up," Thomas said before I heard the stiff's footsteps leaving the store.

I crawled over to the end of the rooftop, peeking over at a bald man in a blue suit. He was on his tablet, clicking through videos of when the bomb went off. In my high distance, I could see smoke from the convenience store and flickered to nighttime. Thanks to the Saviors and their hackers.

I settled on the roof, lying down to watch the clouds brush by. The Nus spaceship barely floated in the sky. I could only see it when I squinted hard enough. Humanity abandoned the ship years ago as we waited for it to crash and burn in space.

Thank you for reading. Please share, comment, and push that beautiful star.