In the Midnight Blue

Premise:

The Midnight and The Blue. Two cities, decimated by the rebels. Lizzie and Gale. A girl and a boy, trying to stay alive while saving their planet.

What will it take?

Chapter one

“Does it really exist?”

A chorus of voices drowned out Lizzie’s thoughts as she tapped her pencil on the metal desk and lazily studied the map on the projector screen. Of course it’s real. She shook her head.

Every year, Lizzie Belcrest was stuck in an “Earth History” class with a teacher who probably knew just as much about Earth as the rest of the space colonists. Every year they talked about the Rebels, a small but growing number of people on Earth, who didn’t agree with the space colonies. Lizzie was never too afraid of the Rebels, even though rumors of their rising numbers swirled throughout the space colonies. She rolled her eyes and tuned out the noisy class, letting her mind drift.

The shrill bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. Lizzie pushed her way out of the classroom and made her way down the long hallways into the common area. Lizzie’s colony, The Blue, had its own dome. To call the dome massive was an understatement, the dome had small apartment cubicles inside of it, each with a balcony overlooking the common area. The Venus Alliance based it on something back on Earth called a hotel. The school took up one section of the dome, while restaurants, swimming pools, indoor fields, tracks, basketball, volleyball and tennis courts, hair salons, shopping centers, and anything else you could ever want or need took up another part that spilled into the commons. Pulling her Starscreen out, Lizzie shuffled through her schedule. ‘Coffee with Tae at 2:00' was in bold underneath ‘finish school’. Luckily, Lizzie was almost at Starlight. Turning the corner she spied her best friend, Tae, perched in a window seat of Starlight, the best coffee shop in the dome. Tae was leaning close to her screen, dark eyebrows pulling together.

“Hey, you!” Lizzie yelled, breaking Tae’s concentration and disturbing a few of the older customers.

Tae’s head snapped up, worry filling her face until she saw Lizzie. “You scared me,” Tae exclaimed, taking a relieved breath.

“What’s wrong? You looked kinda worried,” Lizzie asked, sliding into the seat across from Tae.

“Look at this,” Tae tapped an icon on the display of her Starscreen and pushed the screen towards Lizzie. A video with over 10,000 views was pulled up.

After watching it, Lizzie just shook her head and laughed. Of course Tae was all worked up- she’d probably stayed up all night watching conspiracy theories about the Earthen Rebels.

“Are you getting yourself worked up over those dumb conspiracies again?” Lizzie joked, shoving Tae’s screen back to her and lightly punching her arm.

“Yeah, I guess you're right, it’s just so hard not to believe some of these. I mean, have you seen Orion Starling’s video on it? I swear it’s like he’s one of ‘em.” Tae flashed her friend a brief smile and changed the subject. “Hey, I got your drink,” she said passing Lizzie a crystal mug, sloshing with near-black liquid. “I don’t know how you can drink your coffee as black as that.”

“I guess it’s just another mystery of the world,” Lizzie joked, pulling out her Starscreen to show Tae the cover of the newest book she’d been into.

That night, as Lizzie was braiding her hair and humming to a song stuck in her head, she saw something flash in the corner of her room’s window. It came and went so quickly, she wondered if she had imagined it.

An unsettled feeling washed over Lizzie. She had no idea where her parents were. They were both researchers who worked for the Venus Alliance. They usually had to go to the other colonies and their domes for work, and often didn’t come home until the next day. Lizzie didn’t care- she could manage just fine on her own, and Tae was two doors down if she needed anything. Secretly, she loved it when her parents were gone late. As much as she missed them sometimes, she could stay up reading late into the night, eat toaster pastries for dinner, and blast her music loudly whenever she felt like it, thankful that the walls of the apartment pods were nearly soundproof.

Lizzie turned the pages of her worn copy of Shatter Me, the smell of the paperback making her think of what Earth might smell like. While paperback and hardcover books still existed, they weren’t very common in the domes. Those who did enjoy reading did so on their Starscreens. But not Lizzie. She liked the feel of the rough paper on her fingertips and the smell of old books and stardust. She opened Shatter Me and soon was lost in the story.

A thump interrupted Lizzie’s reading and her head snapped up from the book. She was so close to the end. How long had she been reading? Her eyes burned with exhaustion. Lizzie glanced at the clock, squinting her eyes to read the fluorescent white numbers.

Look at the time, no wonder I’m so tired, she thought to herself. Lizzie once again heard the noise that had pulled her out of Juliette's world. Lizzie drowsily walked to her window to see her parents opening their pod’s door. She quickly shut off her light, rolled into bed, and pulled the covers around her body, pretending to be asleep.

Eventually she did drift off, the pages from Shatter Me coming alive and dancing their way through her dreams. Lizzie dreamt that she was Juliette, locked in the asylum. She had strange powers as well, just like her story’s main character. A loud noise ripped through the dream, rattling the walls of the pod. Lizzie shot up in bed so fast it made her head spin. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes and wondered why she couldn’t see. It was pitch black, the lights were out. Something had happened to the dome’s power line. Lizzie picked up her Starscreen and tapped on the display, thankful the Starscreens don’t rely on the main power supply. It was three in the morning. Lizzie had only been asleep for a few hours. The loud noise and the shaking came again, this time less intense. “Mom? Dad,” She called as she shuffled clumsily across the room. The lights flickered on but quickly shut down again. Using the glowing display on her Starscreen, Lizzie grabbed her black pullover and tugged it over her head. She slipped on her sneakers and carefully made her way over to her parents. Her mother and father were huddled around her father’s Starscreen. “Lizzie! Are you ok?” “I’m fine. What’s going on?” Her mom turned to her, hazel eyes wide. “There was a rocket strike on The Midnight colony,” she said frantically. Lizzie’s curiosity got the best of her, and she felt a need to go investigate. She knew her parents wouldn’t let her go out, but thankfully they were pretty easy to fool. “I’m gonna go check on Tae, she’s probably pretty worked up about the strike,” Lizzie lied. Well, it wasn’t a total lie. Tae probably was freaked out and in need of a friend to comfort her, which made Lizzie all the more guilty as she slipped past Tae’s front door and out the exit of the dome.

The air blew against Lizzie’s face, lifting stray strands of her hair into her face. The Venus Alliance had discovered Vale around the same time as the doomsday year over a century ago, they were shocked to discover that the composition of the planet's atmosphere had a stunning resemblance to Earth's. Vale was the only planet that had thriving colonies, though a few scientists lived in small groups on Mars.

The Midnight colony’s dome was one mile south of The Blue’s dome, and without a vehicle permit, Lizzie had no choice but to run. She arrived thirteen minutes later expecting to see life-altering destruction, but it seemed as if the rocket had missed it’s intended target. Nobody paid attention to Lizzie as she made her way to the mangled rocket and combed through the wreckage. There was nothing that caught her eye right away, but she pocketed a cool-looking shard of glass.

She decided that the rocket was unmanned. They’d missed their target, and while the media suspected Rebels, Lizzie entertained the thought of a colony on a space station in a distant galaxy, perhaps testing one of their rockets. Yes, that’s exactly what it was. It couldn’t be the Rebels. If it was, well... She didn't want to think of what might come about if that theory was correct.

Lizzie was about to leave when a piece of paper fluttered at her feet. She picked it up and examined the paper. It was in good condition, unlike the rest of the rocket. Lizzie ran her finger over the paper and weighed it in her hands. It was thick and smelled like soil, a smell she recognized from one of the simulations in her Earth History class last year. The smell made Lizzie want to vomit. She traced her finger along the writing.

It was in their language, meaning it had to have come from the Rebels. Her fear was only further confirmed as her eyes helplessly scanned the page. There was no mistake that these were plans made by the Rebels.

Plans to destroy the Space Colonies in the near future.

Chapter two

Lizzie’s legs shook as she sank into a crouch, trying to control her breathing. The martian atmosphere suddenly felt too thin. This had to be fake, a hoax of sorts, or some conspiracy theory taken too far. She heard the sound of heavy boots approaching, and her heart rate kicked up.

“Hey you, what have you got there?” An Alliance officer. Lizzie froze, clutching the paper in her hands. She couldn’t lose these plans. “Uh-Um, I-'' Lizzie stammered.

“Well?” the officer asked impatiently. “Get away from my crime scene, and give me whatever the hell you’ve got in your hands.” Lizzie was a queen sitting upon a throne of hastily made decisions. She thought for less than a split second, then did something that even surprised her. She ran.

The officer chased after her, causing a commotion among the nearby crowd of space colonists, but she didn’t care. She knew it was dangerous, but she also knew that the officer wouldn’t shoot at an unarmed seventeen-year-old colonist girl. A young Rebel girl, they would take down without batting an eye, but Lizzie’s colonist status guaranteed her safety. She clutched the paper tighter, the material wrinkling in her sweaty hands. When she was far enough out of sight, she pulled up her undershirt and tucked the paper securely into the waistband of her pants. She reached the dome and exhaled, leaning against the wall.

She was holding Rebel plans. Lizzie quietly crept into her apartment pod, the door opening with a whoosh sound. The display on her Starscreen read five am. She wouldn’t be getting any more sleep, it seemed. She sighed and stuffed the papers under her mattress, and began to get ready for the day.

Lizzie could hardly focus during class. Her mind kept drifting to the Rebel plans hidden under her mattress, and the possibility of her friends and family being taken by the Rebels, or even worse, dying. Tensions ran high throughout the dome. Lizzie called off her daily after-school meeting at Starlight with Tae, making up some story about spending time with her parents before they left on a research mission. She raced home, thanking the stars that there was no sign of her parents in the pod, and darted into her room. She lifted up her mattress and uncovered the plans, which perplexed her and made her head ache.

It was seven o’clock when Lizzie finally took a break to heat up a slice of cold vegetable pizza and make some coffee. Hours later, she was still comparing the markings on the foreign document to the ones in her Earth History textbook. There wasn’t much to look into, though. Perhaps she was overthinking it...

Lizzie gasped with surprise. She was missing the rest of the pages. There were incomplete orders and directions. Directions for what, exactly, though? The initials C.T.T.L were scribbling on the paper in loopy handwriting at the bottom, that seemed awfully familiar for reasons she couldn’t quite place. Lizzie squinted at the paper. She wondered if they’d been destroyed in the wreckage. A horrible feeling settled deep into Lizzie’s bones. There wasn’t anything she could do. A Rebel strike was to occur in the near future, and all she could do was hope that it missed The Blue. If it did hit her colony’s Dome...

Lizzie didn’t want to think about that. She folded up the papers into a tight, neat, square, and slipped it into the plastic back of her Starscreen’s case, then flopped backward onto her bed, trying to get some rest.

The next few days were a blur of excitement and anticipation. Some people believed that it truly was the Rebels, and the fact that the rocket missed was just a coincidence. Others deemed it a conspiracy theory gone much too far. When asked what she thought, Lizzie just smiled politely and subtly changed the subject. It worked every time, and nobody had to see the anxiety hidden deep beneath her smile.

Later that night, as she was drawing the silver shades, Lizzie saw a swift flash in the distance. The illusion was the same one that she’d seen the night of the Rebel strike. She knew this couldn’t be a good thing, but pushed it out of her mind and decided to try and get some sleep. For once in her life, Lizzie didn’t stay up reading past midnight, though sleep didn’t come easy for her. Her parents hadn’t returned at their usual time, and anxiety made her stomach unsettled.

She laid awake for hours, staring at the metallic ceiling of the apartment, but sleep wouldn’t take over. She wanted to be ready when whatever the Rebel’s were planning happened. But she was just so tired. She promised herself that she’d only rest her eyes for a few moments, but she quickly descended into a dreamless sleep.

Lights flashed across the pod so bright it made Lizzie’s head pound. The walls shook and the faint smell of smoke drifted through her open door. Whatever dream she was having, she wanted it to end. Lizzie could feel the blood pounding in her ears and hear screaming in the distance. The sharp sound of alarms filled her ears and Lizzie sat straight up heart pumping.

She looked around the dark, smoky room. This was no dream. Lizzie dropped her sweatpants and tugged on the jeans she’d worn to school, which were haphazardly thrown across her desk chair. She tossed the Starscreen and Shatter Me into her small backpack, and yanked her black jacket over her head, wearing only a white spaghetti strap top underneath. She called for her parents, not even bothering to check the time. The power was out, and the smoke filling the room, no doubt from a fire in one of the nearby apartment pods or the dome, made it that much harder to navigate the living quarters. She coughed and pulled on her shoes. No sign of her parents. Her hands clumsily unbraided her hair, ash-blonde waves coming loose around her shoulders. She ran into the commons, backpack thumping against her back.

She wasn’t quite sure what to make of the current situation, and almost laughed out loud. The roof of the dome was gone, and she could see the silver and gold clouds drifting past in the midnight sky, accompanied by an iridescent stream of Stardust. Pods were on fire. There were people dead, and others buried in the wreckage. Alliance officers and soldiers were taping off restricted areas and trying to calm down hysterical civilians. Smoke was everywhere and Lizzie the screams of the space colonists filled her gut with ice. She peered out of a massive hole in the dome’s wall. A plume of smoke sliced through the sky to the south, and she realized The Midnight colony must have been struck too.

She considered something. If the damage was less severe in the Midnight city... No, it was irresponsible and reckless.

Her train of thought was interrupted when a crash of building debris came down around her, flaming and smoking at her feet, and at that moment, Lizzie knew two things.

A lot of people were dead, and she needed to get out of the dome.

Chapter three

Gale bolted upright in his bed. Something was wrong. Smoke was filling his room and the walls shook, threatening to collapse around him. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up and yelling for his parents and older brother, his voice echoing through the small apartment. No response. The walls began to shake with even more intensity, and Gale needed to get out of the pod. He moved blindly through the room, the moon shining through the window casting eerie shadows on the floor. He'd fallen asleep in his jeans and t-shirt, like most nights. He pulled his jacket on, laced his sneakers, and zipped his Starscreen into his jacket pocket.

Gale crept cautiously through the apartment, searching for signs of his family. It was after midnight, they should have returned home already. He exited the pod, not sure where he was going.

As smoke filled the hallways of the Midnight colony’s dome, he picked up his pace and ran down the twisting corridors. The hallways were nearly impossible to navigate as it was, and the smoky darkness made getting to the common area anyone’s worst nightmare. When he finally escaped the labyrinth, what Gale saw sent a chill down his spine.

The dome was a mess. There were chunks of walls missing, accented with gaping holes where concrete, steel, and glass once were. Fires were beginning to catch then burn, and twisted scraps of metal and other debris littered the ground. There were people trapped and screaming, and law enforcement shooting at or detaining anyone suspected to be a Rebel.

Gale realized something as he looked around. Almost everyone had their identification badges pinned on. Of course he’d forgotten his. Most of the colonists left them on all the time, but Gale always took his off to sleep. Any of the colonists who didn’t have ID on them were presumed to be a Rebel, and that meant trouble. He needed to hide before an officer spotted him. With all the chaos going on around him, it wouldn’t be too hard to blend in.

Gale looked around and ducked into a crumbling restaurant. There was nobody inside. Another blast rocked the dome, sending spikes of fear through his blood. He checked his watch. It had been an hour. The noise died down, meaning it was possible that most of the survivors had been evacuated. He racked his brain for an idea of what to do next. There was no way he would be able to go back to his room to try and find his ID. It was too risky.

Another Rebel attack, a structural collapse, the possibility of being trapped by fires, or shot dead by a paranoid, untrained soldier all were dangers he might encounter. On the other hand, he could wait it out until everyone was gone, and run away, into the wilderness. Maybe to the Blue’s city, a mile north. They had a different identification system, but how long would he be stuck here, in the rubble of the half-collapsed building?

The heavy crunching of boots interrupted his thoughts. Gale held his breath. A Venus Alliance officer was nearby. The officer began digging through the rubble, Gale knew things were about to go south for him. The officer’s intentions were probably to look for survivors, but he wished she would go away.

Smoke and light poured into the small space where Gale was hiding, and he looked up at the woman. She couldn't be much older than him. He put his hands up and tried to reason with her. “Look, I’m not-” The officers' green eyes were wide with fear. She paused for a moment, a look of regret on her face.

“Sorry kid,” she sighed, and brought her gun down on his head. A moment later, everything went dark.