The End of My World

Sophia Randle

Eddie Kite

10/246 AB

I Found Other Survivors!

(By the way, if you were wondering what 10/246 AB stands for, the first numbers stands for the years after the bombing, and the second numbers stands for days.)

Dear Sophia,

I can't believe this actually worked. I thought my parents were joking when they told me to try to use the old email system that used our radar dish. My parents told me how, in the old days, people would sometimes communicate via an email system using radar dishes and satellites. They told me that maybe, just maybe, I would be able to connect to a group of survivors using the email system, so I hooked up the satellite dish to power and sent an email on one of my parents' old computers. I honestly just thought that they were trying to keep me busy.

I used AI to send a quick email to thousands of different emails, and yours just happened to ping back! I hope you will read this, but before I get too caught up in my story, I must ask you: Is it just you, or are there other survivors? I have been dying to ask this question. Ever since the dark days when I was only six, I have wondered and wondered and wondered. Finally, I have found somebody.

Okay, here I go with my story. My family and I live in a clear inlet at the bottom of the ocean. I came here when I was six, when the first bomb was dropped. My family had had this place planned out ever since the world leaders started to plan a war. My parents claim that in the real world, they were biologists. That was why they were invited to this place.

I live in a complex of buildings under the water. We are probably about a hundred feet under the water, deep enough that light can still get through. I don't know where in the world we live, but I can tell you what our facilities look like. We live on a large underwater farm. We have a garden powered with hydroponics, which basically just uses water to grow things, and we have chickens. Those eggs are the best things in the world. It tastes like meat to me at this point, as it has been a long time since I have had any real meat. Other than that, I am forced to survive on vegetables. You don't even know how much a string bean just starts to feel like a literal string after you have eaten so many of them.

At one point, we used to be connected to more groups of underwater living places, but a year after the bombings, the other families decided to go above the water in hopes that they could find a place where the radiation was low or non-existent. Then they had said that they would come back to pick us up and bring us to the place.

Each of the four families had been in charge of something separately. One ran a mine on the bottom of the ocean, one researched the effects of radiation on life in their lab, one was an engineer who kept our equipment up and running, and the last family was there to provide an extra set of hands and for reproductive purposes. As you can see, the purpose of our civilization was to keep humanity living under the ocean with enough humans to reproduce and start the next generation.

The families had some cool living places, like the laboratory, a mine, and some other cool things, like a school. We could still have access to those things, but a huge shark rammed through the "reinforced" glass walkway, and now we are stuck in our little home under the sea. At least we were in charge of food, and they still had running water and electricity working, or I would be dead. Thinking about all this really makes me think about how fragile my life is down here.

Anyway, my dad had always told me that the land above us would be a hostile environment. I could see how that would be, as the shark that had hit us was a great white the size of a semi-truck.

Plus, the families had never come back, and when my dad went to go check the tracker that was on their submarines, he found that it had been destroyed. Ominous, right? So we have stayed under the ocean. My mom and dad tend to the livestock while I sit and sit, occasionally tinkering around with the technology and computers without permission.

Then I contacted you, and my life got a whole lot less boring.

Anyway, that is me,

Eddie Kite

Sophia Randle

Eddie Kite

10/247

The Leak

Dear Sophia,

You live with hundreds of other survivors?! I can't believe that I am not the only one. I can already picture you in my head. I bet you have hair with blonde streaks, and you are always dressed fashionably. Your eyes are also green, and you are very tan, just like my dad describes a California girl.

You also asked about how I breathe under the water, and I have never really considered it before. When I asked my parents, they said that the billionaire who funded us made a system to get oxygen out of water, so we don't suffocate. It involves a bunch of advanced tech, but if you break it down, all it is doing is breaking off the hydrogen from the oxygen so that only oxygen is left over.

Now let me tell you what happened. We found a leak. This reminds me of how yesterday I told you how my life is super fragile. This is how. If the leak gets any bigger, we will all die. And I really don't want to die. I want to live and see the world someday. (At least what's left of it.) Plus, it sucks that those other families took all of the scubes (that is what I call the submarines) that get us to the surface, and now if we go into the water, we would probably suffocate before we would get to the surface, or we could be turned into a pancake by the pressure of the water.

You see my dilemma?

My mom is calling me now. I have to go watch the water pump and make sure it doesn't break or anything. That pump is the only reason we are alive right now.

Talk soon,

Eddie Kite

Sophia Randle

Eddie Kite

10/248

Where I Live

Dear Sophia,

I guess I have never thought about where I live. I have never asked. When I asked my parents where we live, they said that we live right off the coast of Alaska. Of course, that is too far away if you live underground in what used to be Los Angeles. I am sorry, but I don't think that your plan will work. (By the way, I was right. You are a California girl!)

As far as things have been going here, I think we should make it. The pump is working fine. One sec; my mom is calling for me.

Shoot, the pump just broke. My parents are trying to fix it, but it looks like we are going to have to start bailing with buckets. The water is above my shoes, and my feet are soggy, and I can feel them turning into raisins. I probably only have days to live. Tears have been abundant around the house.

Thank you so much for being here with me through all this. You don't even know how much this means to me.

Bye,

Eddie Kite

Sophia Randle

Eddie Kite

10/249

We Could Get Rescued?

Dear Sophia,

You guys are really going to try to do that all for me and my family?

My parents and I are filled with gratitude, but I still cannot get over the fact that you have the technology to make a robot that could fly to Alaska, go under the water, and rescue us! To think that you have hundreds of people working double time to save three lives tells me that hope is not lost for humanity. Plus, the chute that you guys have that goes to the surface and one that goes under the water is mind-blowing. I mean, it is basically a tunnel that you can access the world in!

Anyway, the bailing process is going well, even though my arms feel like rubber. We probably only have a couple of days left, so hurry if you can.

Thank you so much,

Eddie Kite

Sophia Randle

Eddie Kite

10/250

The Arms of Death

You guys are almost done already! That is incredible.

I will just give you a quick update on how things are going over here: We are waist-high in water, and my dad is getting hypothermia. It is really getting depressing around here, slowly freezing/drowning to death. I have spent many a moment with my mother, crying into her arms, waiting for the arms of death to envelop us. I mean, listen to me! The coldness is getting to my brain. Speaking of cold, I can't feel my legs. Every time I poke them, it just feels like rubber. My finger is doing all the feeling, just so you know.

Anyway, I don't have much more to say.

Eddie Kite

Sophia Randle

Eddie Kite

10/251

Out of Faith

Dear Sophia,

The robot thing is almost over already?! I have turned the signal on our GPS tracking device in our house to high, and I will give you the tracking number in a separate email so you have it.

The water is almost up to my chest, and I have put the computer up on a shelf so it doesn't get ruined. Yesterday, after I emailed you, we had to kill the chickens. It felt amazing to have the texture of meat in my mouth. The smooth texture, meaty taste, and the smell was one of the most glorious things I have smelled in a long time. We have also uprooted the plants because they were drowning in water. Now I feel fat because I have been eating so much food.

My mom really does not have that much faith in your machine. I could see her point. For all she knows, you could be AI or something like that, tricking us. Plus, you can't think very well when you haven't been able to feel your limbs for a couple of days. (Now my chest is numb too, and when I feel my heartbeat, it is faint.)

My vision is also starting to dim, and my brain is feeling sluggish. My dad has gone into a coma of sorts, and my mom was only barely able to tell me that she loves me.

This will be my last letter unless your robot comes through,

Eddie Kite

Sophia Randle

Eddie Kite

10/252

I Am Alive!

Dear Sophia,

You are my favorite human being in the whole world. I can't believe that the submarine thing actually came through. I am now sitting in the robot flying over the bombed remains of civilization, anxiously awaiting when I get to meet you.

First, I just want to say the feeling of being alive when I was going to be dead is amazing. I feel a strong source of excitement, unbridled energy that I will use to explore my new world. This energy is impossible to put into words, but I feel like I could do anything in the world right now.

Enough of my emotions. Now I shall give you a rundown on how it all went down.

I stayed up all that night after sending that last email, and when the first rays of daylight entered the windows, I saw the bot come down through the ocean. It was quite dull. Just a black sphere, just big enough to fit me and my family inside. The only thing that looked like a flying mechanism was the propellers that whirred alongside it. Regardless, it suctioned itself to our main window just like you said it would. Then it cut a hole in the glass with a laser that came out of the black orb. The hole was just big enough for me to get through.

At this point, the water was up to my neck, and I had to hold my breath and push my parents' still bodies through the opening, which was also full of water with just enough room for me to breathe at the top. I also grabbed the computer and the radar dish. Once I was in with my family, I pressed the button that you said I should press to close the hatch, and it closed it. Then the water drained out, and I could feel it moving.

You really should have added windows to this thing so I could see everything I was going by.

About halfway through the trip, my parents woke up and we hugged and kissed each other, happy to be alive. We all have some major frostbite, though, so please be ready with medical aid when we arrive. As soon as my parents fell back asleep, I started to type up this email. It was a bit hard because my fingers feel like they are falling off, which they are, so I will stop here soon.

Thank you so much for all that you have done for this family, Sophia. I am getting tired now. I hope I will get to see you soon. I hope we will be able to be friends.

Eddie Kite

P.S. Can I give you a hug once I get out of this thing?